Hope this thread gonna help to make Painter even better software then it is now. I like this software much more then Photoshop, but there is a couple of things that can stop users (not only me) from jumping for just a moment to PS to make some little modifications.
Painter could be self-sufficient in the future for those, whose using this two softwares simultaneously.

My wishlist for this moment:

- Fix a airbrush problem which was discussed in other thread (Rick knows)
- Add the flow option for brushes like in PS, and maybe it softness . It gives SO MUCH possibilities in doing digital art, including matte paintings
- Adjust Color tool to be previable in whole image. This small preview window doesnt make job well
- More possibilities of modificating dabs shapes. There is only six of them (main). In PS there is 100% of hardness, it works great. You could combine those two variants to be unique in Painter.
- Add as optional the Color Picker and zooming style as it was in Painter 6. Picker was bigger then its now, but taken the same place in whole layout
- Gradient editing/making is still much more flexible in Photoshop then in Painter. Specially circular. Its very often used tool when composing in PS.
- Pure Water Brush (Digital Watercolors) works a little as a build up brush. In Painter 6 it worked as Just Add Water, but i dont know is this modification wasnt intentional.

Corel, thanks in advance, and i will have an eye on this thread and keep thinking about new ideas.

Jinbrown

02-06-2005, 02:39 AM

- Pure Water Brush (Digital Watercolors) works a little as a build up brush. In Painter 6 it worked as Just Add Water, but i dont know is this modification wasnt intentional.

Hi,

Can you be more specific about this? When I tested the Painter IX New Simple Water and Pure Water Brush variants, then the Simple Water and Pure Water Brush variants they seemed to work pretty much the same as the Painter 6.1 Simple Water and Pure Water Brush variants.

Are you using another brush variant combination, and if so, which ones are you using with the Painter IX Pure Water Brush variant?

Thanks,

Per-Anders

02-06-2005, 04:11 AM

i would like to have some more options for cursor display. as in if the brush is below a certian size for it to use an alternative cursor, like a cross or something.

i'd also like to see the felt pens eased off a bit in their buildup speed, i find most of the time if i ever use them i've having to use very very faint colors for them to work or be useable.

i would also like to see some form of delaying dryout/buildup of certain brushes. i.e. lets take felt pens as an example. normally with designer markers if you do a fairly fast side to side stroke to fill in an area it will result in a pretty flat area, because the solvent helps diffuse the buildup some and stops more ink coming onto the paper from the nib. if you are slower you end up with more streaks/more buildup going on. it would be nice to have some way of emulating this... paper -ink/pigment/water saturation value. i.e. the paper can't accept any more ink till what's in there has dried.

Drevious

02-08-2005, 11:10 PM

almost forget:

- add the Adjust Color tool to the Dynamic Plugins in Layers window, so it could be as a new layer and afterwards be modificable.

Oh great one with this merging layers and ghost brush.
I have got hotkeyed "group" and "colapse" for fast merging layers, but doing this with one button could be nice.

brenly

02-14-2005, 12:43 AM

more stable when using selections .. very flakey at the moment.

TNTJack

02-20-2005, 04:20 PM

As has been discussed here: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=211670

It would be so helpful if the "zoom in" and "zoom out" commands under the Window menu behaved like Photoshop´s (snapping to "round" numbers: 150, 200, etc. These values make the zoomed view much nicer). The same applies when clicking the left or right arrows from the zoom bar at the bottom of the screen

Thanks Painter team for this beautiful program

PetriJ

02-21-2005, 01:37 PM

I wish you finally make the opacity to work like in photoshop.

The above test is made with Painter IX, changing the opacity.
The one below is same with Photoshop CS.

http://www.dawnkill.com/gallery/crap/op.jpg

As you can see, the opacity doesn't work very well in painter. I hope you make this posible in next patch.
Thanks.

SwanKnight

02-22-2005, 04:43 AM

I hope those who can't afford a tablet can make some art with painter . :P

Per-Anders

02-22-2005, 11:15 PM

- a scumble/washbrush mode for artists oils - like adding more turps to the mix, the pigment goes further, but loaded oils are less defined, more blurry and more likely to pick up other strokes already down on the canvas, also disolves impasto it goes over.

- color pickup related to impasto ammount - even when impasto is not visible i presume it's stored as a z-layer or greyscale layer internally, it would be fun to use the height of this layer (thus the ammount of paint there) to pick up more paint from higher areas than from lower areas (as you might expect in real life).

- brush controls cleanup:

currently the brush controls palette is great, comprehensive, and very very long.
it would make sense to be able to have it automatically hide away greyed out elements/groups.

e.g. when you have artists oils active everything in "Spacing" (and many others) is greyed out, therefore that could all be hidden from the user. this would cut down on the length of this palette considerably as there are always greyed out elements in there, and make it much more managable.

Per-Anders

02-23-2005, 06:11 PM

liquid ink:

some indication of where "resist" is with liquid ink. real life resist is slightly yellow in color so it's easy to see where you've put it, without a cue it makes working with liquid ink rather difficult. additionally there needs to be a "remove resist" option for working with liquid so you can quickly get rid of the resist you've added.

Sil3

02-23-2005, 07:57 PM

Weting paper to use with watercolors like we do in the real world...i cant get the same "feeling" on Painter watercolors as i do in real life, were i mainly use a brush to wet the paper before i apply the strokes and see the ink "flowing"

Per-Anders

02-23-2005, 08:10 PM

improved "dryness" or "grain" with the artists oils. currently they're very much like oils on a wet brush on a smooth surface. but if you look at ArtRage's brush strokes theyr'e like Oils on a Dry brush (with a higher pigment and bulk on a grainy surface), i'm unable to recreate the effect in painter, the edge breakup, crumbly falloff. it would be nice to be able to recreate this sort of effect. (the second painter stroke is the closest i could get using maximum added grain of 50% as any higher or lower is less grain for some obscure reason).

To repeat the above question, anybody heard when will the upcoming patch will be coming?

I would very much like to use my expensive program again. I hope they solve PIX's vanishing act.

Jinbrown

02-24-2005, 09:07 PM

improved "dryness" or "grain" with the artists oils. currently they're very much like oils on a wet brush on a smooth surface. but if you look at ArtRage's brush strokes theyr'e like Oils on a Dry brush (with a higher pigment and bulk on a grainy surface), i'm unable to recreate the effect in painter, the edge breakup, crumbly falloff. it would be nice to be able to recreate this sort of effect. (the second painter stroke is the closest i could get using maximum added grain of 50% as any higher or lower is less grain for some obscure reason).

http://www.peranders.com/c4d8/celey/paintstroke.jpg

You need to spend more time experimenting with the brush controls, particularly in the Brush Controls' Artist's Oils palette.

Also try adjusting the Grain slider on the Property Bar and the Paper Contrast slider in the Papers palette.

It's definitely possible to get an Artist's Oils variant to paint so the trail off part of the brushstroke shows the Paper texture.

If your Paper is too smooth, the effect will be less visible, naturally.

Per-Anders

02-24-2005, 09:39 PM

maybe you could show me a good example brush then with the sharp start, edge breakup and dry tail breakup (not texture).

I've been unable to get such an effect having played with the grain (as stated bizarely strongest at 50%) and the artists oils settings themselves (though I was able to get some odd overlay of stroke artifacts).

the best i've achieved is something that starts out like a thined out oily paint on a ceramic tile that then turns into some sort of chalk before fading out..

Jinbrown

02-25-2005, 04:49 AM

mdme_sadie,

I've done some experimenting, created a couple of demo images and a custom brush variant. Since that doesn't really belong in this thread, I'll post it all in a new thread named:

Jins_AO_DryBrush Custom Brush Variant for meme_sadie

Jinny

Per-Anders

02-25-2005, 05:00 AM

hmm thanks, that's a lot of work you put in there, but it is kinda the same result i was getting. the grain in painter starts well before the actual trailoff and in the darker areas evenly (as the lighter areas) so it looks like a kind of chalk block rather than grainy falloff.

really where it's darker is where there's more paint, so you'd expect the grain to only show through the lighter areas (as it does in the artrage stroke) till the pain runs out. but with painter the grain just sort of fades up throughout both think (dark) and thin (light) midway thorugh the stroke.

Jinbrown

02-25-2005, 05:03 AM

mdme_sadie,

Darn! I hoped you wouldn't see the original post since I'm moving it to a new thread.

Let's talk about it there since this thread is not the appropriate place to discuss techniques and brushes indepth as it's a Wish List thread after all.

Per-Anders

02-25-2005, 05:04 AM

well... it's still on my wishlist :D

rogfa

03-02-2005, 03:54 AM

I'd love to see better dual monitor support on the Windows version.

RossH

03-02-2005, 08:03 PM

Here's my suggestions for the patch, or version 10! Some I'm repeating from other posts on this thread (*)...

1. Snap to grid (what is the point of a grid you can't snap to)

2. Better opacity control (current opacity is is biased WAY too much towards 100%) (*)

3. Impasto modify and export (would be interesting to see and edit the impasto effect layer like it was a channel. It would also be useful to export the impasto z-depth info separately, so it can be used as a bump map in 3d software packages).

4. Drippy ink/paint (like watercolor diffusion, be nice if we could paint thick runny paint that starts dripping down the canvas)

6. Watercolor Chromatography (split watercolor color into CMYK components and be able to give each color a different diffusion rate, so the color separates like very cheap watercolor/non-art inks)

7. Visible resist in liquid oil layers (*)

8. Resist (frisket or wax) for watercolor layers, although I guess using chalk on a layer masks would work the same. Still, would be nice to add color 'wax' crayon direct to watercolor layer and have it repell water.

9. Ability to wet specific areas of the canvas (paint with water) without affecting painting, so you can control subsiquent wet-on-wet diffusion limits. Something we sort-of do with selections, but there's no fringing of color between the 'wet' and 'dry' areas.

10. A real 'dry' eraser for watercolor- I don't want to bleach, I want to rub-away at the watercolor paper without resorting to chalk on a layer mask.

11. Better 'dry brush' abilities with oils ( I want to hit the crests of the paper with color, but not fill the dimples nor apply a very transparent layer of paint)

12. Impasto takes account of paper texture ( after applying a thick brushstroke to lumpy paper, I want to be able to 'plow' away the paint again... although some paint should remain stuck in the dimples in the paper, only the crests should be removed of paint)

13. Float watercolor selections. Greyed out in the drop-down menu but if you make a selection on a watercolor layer and click using the layer adjust tool it floats the selection into a new normal layer. How about it copies the color and floats it into a new watercolor layer.

14. Further interface customisation. How about all the custom palettes you create are also made available in the dropdown menu (say between 'Window' and 'Help"). That way you can access each function in each custom palette without taking up screen realestate. Opening up this 'custom pallete' drop-down menu would reveal a list of custom palettes, each of whic can be opened up to access the contents of each palette.

15. Better 2-monitor support (*)

OK, I should stop now becore I give the guys at Corel a fright! :-)

Immagina

03-03-2005, 01:19 AM

One more suggestion is to change Corel Painter IX menu for usability purpose:

Example: "Capture Brush Category" is not a very intuitive menu, especially if you are new to Painter, and should be renamed to "Create new brush category" which anybody can understand what it means.

1.b
Going on the previous one, beeing able to set paper textures on individual brushes.
So i don't have to change paper all the time!

2.
Real transparency

3.
Keyboard shortcuts on brushes

4.
Artrage oil's

5.
Zoom snapping to the magnifier preference when i click ctrl+/-

6.
Camel brush WITH paper texture

7.
Low upgrade prices

If any of these things i yet possible, PLEASE tell me so!

Thanks COREL for continuing on Painter!

UPDATE! Since i do have a dual processor system and DUAL core is on the horizon, why not support dual processor/Core, this way we could pain faaaaster...

Drevious

03-04-2005, 01:48 AM

- an idea to draw fast freehand circles: with Shift we can achieve straight lines, but my idea is to add combination of Shift+Alt for establishing the radius of the circle, then release alt key and with the Shift key hold, we can go on the invisible circle by moving our hand. For designers it would be very useful thing.

- when free transforming, to view "on the fly" what we are modificating.

TechnoAlchemy

03-04-2005, 03:31 PM

In addition to the excellent suggestions above....

I really, REALLY hope they make the pallettes no longer locked within the parent window. I invested in a dual-monitor setup specifically so I could get those out of the way of the image I'm working on and have tuts/reference material on the other monitor, and the fact that they're solidly locked in the parent is...baffling.

PetriJ

03-04-2005, 09:22 PM

This is a minor request, but I've been thinking why I can scale other toolbars, but color and color info bars. I understand that it might be a bit difficult to make the color bar scalable, but even the color info would help. It would give so much better control of the hue, saturation and value, if the slider would be bigger.
I know that if I double click the current color icon I get bigger and better color picker. Of course you could just make the big color picker to be an optional picker, that people could choose to use if the default isn't enough. (I mean that you could choose it to replace the default color picker.)

I hope that made sense.
..me and my bad english.. http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

PetriJ

03-06-2005, 04:09 PM

Oh, and painter is missing this "polygonal lasso tool" what can be found in photoshop.
Now this can be done in the current version of painter, like.. make a new layer, press "v", draw the area you want to select, select the area with magic wand, and go to the layer you want to use this selection.
But this is kind of slow, so this tool would help.
But the Real opacity is still my top reguest.

Per-Anders

03-06-2005, 07:31 PM

for polygonal lasso, use the pen tool, then once you've finished drawing your shape, at the top you'll see some buttons, one of them is for turning the shape into a selection. no need for any new layers.

Jinbrown

03-06-2005, 08:10 PM

My wishes:

1.b
Going on the previous one, beeing able to set paper textures on individual brushes.
So i don't have to change paper all the time!

We've had it for years, in several Painter versions.

Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Index

Type Brush Looks, click "saving", click the Display button, and read.

Squeakypics

03-08-2005, 05:07 PM

PNG and/or TGA support.
At the very least some easy way of exporting transparewnt images without having to resort to Photoshop.

Also I would STILL like to be able to cut out and resize without getting grey lines round the edges of the selection As I do now.

Arjo

03-16-2005, 06:28 PM

OK then I'll try overhere ;)

Being able to browse through a folder of Riff images on Windows. Either outside or inside Painter.

And yes I do agree about the dual monitor support. Most other applications accept dragging palettes out of the main Window.

Better image resize window. Most of all that aspect ratio is not locked.

Arjo.

ceenda

03-17-2005, 03:24 PM

I wish you finally make the opacity to work like in photoshop.

The above test is made with Painter IX, changing the opacity.
The one below is same with Photoshop CS.

http://www.dawnkill.com/gallery/crap/op.jpg

As you can see, the opacity doesn't work very well in painter. I hope you make this posible in next patch.
Thanks.

Oh, yes! Please!

It would be suitable as a brush application option (e.g., Cover, Erase, Layer-Applied Opacity, Burn etc.)

The reason that photoshop's opacity works differently is that the brush stroke is not 'applied' until you let go of the cursor. Painter adds opacity for every step of the brush stroke, so they are constantly building on the previous brush 'stamp'.

In painter 6, if I want to resize a brush on-the-fly, I hold Ctrl+Alt, resize and the brush is ready for use. In Painter IX, I have to click once on the canvas after resizing to activate it! Why??? What else are you going to do other than paint with the brush once you've resized it?

Please Corel, I know this sounds trivial, but it's like walking along the road but having to tap each shoe on the pavement before taking another step. It's looks stupid and breaks up workflow.

make the create layer mask from selection actually make a layer mask from the selection rather than from what's inside of the selected area.

Jinbrown

03-18-2005, 01:11 PM

meme_sadie,

Unless I'm completely missing what you're asking for, we already have it in Painter IX and we had it in Painter 8 as well, some of it in several earlier versions too.

make the fill tool work with layer masks.

The Painter IX and Painter 8 Paint Bucket tool does work on Layer Masks and on Alpha Channels, as does the Painter IX and Painter 8 Effects > Fill command work on both Layer Masks and Alpha Channels.

make the create layer mask from selection actually make a layer mask from the selection rather than from what's inside of the selected area.

I'm not sure where you find a command named "create layer mask from selection". I think you might be talking about Alpha Channels (that can be created by saving selections) not Layer Masks.

In any case, that's exactly what Painter IX, Painter 8, and earlier version Alpha Channels or User Masks do.

They mask the area around the selection to protect it from being affected by painting or Effects menu options. That's the default behavior and unless the Alpha Channel or User Mask is inverted, or the loaded selection is inverted, or another Drawing Mode icon is chosen, only the unmasked area will be affected.

Mask = hide or protect

Hide = Layer Masks

Protect = Alpha Channels or in earlier versions, User Masks

theCloudmover

03-18-2005, 02:02 PM

In painter 6, if I want to resize a brush on-the-fly, I hold Ctrl+Alt, resize and the brush is ready for use. In Painter IX, I have to click once on the canvas after resizing to activate it! Why??? What else are you going to do other than paint with the brush once you've resized it?

Please Corel, I know this sounds trivial, but it's like walking along the road but having to tap each shoe on the pavement before taking another step. It's looks stupid and breaks up workflow.

I use the Bracket keys: [ & ] to increase or decrease the size incrementally "on- the-fly."

I'm doing it now to test it out. Resize, draw. Resize, draw. I don't have to tap to activate anything.

ceenda

03-18-2005, 02:06 PM

Yes, but do you use bracket keys when you have a size 100 brush and then zoom in and resize to 4 or 5? You'd be holding down the '[' for quite a while.

Ctrl-Alt, imo, was the best way of doing it. It was fine in Painter 5.5 and Painter 6. Then they added the Shift to it. Everyone hated it, so they accepted that and went back. But we were lumbered with an extra step in the process.

To be honest, it's not a problem. If it's not fixed, I don't upgrade. Simple. :)

theCloudmover

03-18-2005, 02:29 PM

I wish you finally make the opacity to work like in photoshop.

The above test is made with Painter IX, changing the opacity.
The one below is same with Photoshop CS.

http://www.dawnkill.com/gallery/crap/op.jpg

As you can see, the opacity doesn't work very well in painter. I hope you make this posible in next patch.
Thanks.

Isn't this result dependent on the Painter Media Variant you choose for your experiment?

In the real world, each media oil, gouche, watercolor, etc. has very specific properties of transparency and opacity. You choose which one is best for the result you want.

I think we have to take into account the natural media abilities of Painter when trying to compare it to Photoshop. If you want a clear glaze use watercolor. If you want a translucent glaze or an opaque tone use gouche or oil, etc. Just as you would in the real world.

Photoshop is dumb in this respect. It has ONE WAY to apply paint and doesn't emulate anything. I think that uniformity is why it seems to "work better."

theCloudmover

03-18-2005, 02:44 PM

One request from me in the upcoming Patch, would be the ability to add multiple vanishing points to the PERSPECTIVE GRID. Even the addition of Two-Point Perspective would be better than what's there.

If you could snap to the active Perspective Grid I'd be in heaven.

theCloudmover

03-18-2005, 02:52 PM

Yes, but do you use bracket keys when you have a size 100 brush and then zoom in and resize to 4 or 5? You'd be holding down the '[' for quite a while.

Ctrl-Alt, imo, was the best way of doing it. It was fine in Painter 5.5 and Painter 6. Then they added the Shift to it. Everyone hated it, so they accepted that and went back. But we were lumbered with an extra step in the process.

To be honest, it's not a problem. If it's not fixed, I don't upgrade. Simple. :)

Actually, I have it set to increase in increments of five. It takes (testing it out) one and 1/2 seconds to go from five to one hundred. I find that VERY acceptable.

ceenda

03-19-2005, 09:58 AM

I did, in fact, try increasing the step size to 5. It's a little bit better, but still not as fast as the Ctrl-Alt method. (for me, alas. Usability being a issue that is totally subjective from one person to another :D) But To get accurate brush size from 1-5 I have to back into preferences. I really like the '[' and ']' for minute adjustments once the 'bulk' shape of the brush has been set.

BaronImpossible

03-19-2005, 12:48 PM

Never used 9, but I also want to the opacity option as mentioned, i.e. to have opacity increase only on each stroke, not each time the brush passes over existing pigment. But - IMPORTANT - this absolutely should not replace the existing opacity settings, it should be an added option. To replace the existing opacity settings, which emulate natural media, would render the whole package useless for me.

theCloudmover

03-19-2005, 03:10 PM

Never used 9, but I also want to the opacity option as mentioned, i.e. to have opacity increase only on each stroke, not each time the brush passes over existing pigment.

Let me see if I understand you guys...
You want that "clean wash" that Ryan Church does in his DVDs. Sort of like a marker when you see no marker strokes. BUT you don't want that clean tone disturbed if you paint over it with the same brush. You just want the SAME tone until you decide to "dry the watercolor."

Like this?
http://img116.exs.cx/img116/369/color2dc.th.jpg (http://img116.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img116&image=color2dc.jpg)The different orange values are achived by drying the watercolor and aplying the same tone over the top.
Go to the Brush Controls menu and Modify the existing "Digital Water Color" - "New Simple Water" brush variant by changing the "Spacing" to 13-14% and changing the "Minimum Spacing" to .5 The factory variant is fine for me but when I want that extra clean wash I modify the factory default.

I thought this would be a cool feature also. But guess what! On the Painter 9 CD they have some Splatter Brushes! I never noticed until now.

http://img116.exs.cx/img116/3601/splats5ec.th.jpg (http://img116.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img116&image=splats5ec.jpg)
These are actualy very expresive and completely random. I think if we modified it we might be able to get the feature you and I were wanting.

Drevious

03-19-2005, 05:56 PM

Once again! Painter doesnt have the PS flow option. Dont try to find some extra-cool substitute to even replace it in 10%. U will not find it! Thats why a lot of users dont move to the Painter, thats why matte painters always uses PS (and pls dont ask why). If you have different statment, make a new thread, this is a wishlist thread, not discussion place about who is liking some options more, and way how he works, because he thinks its cool.

I am little afraid about future of this patch, specially about release date or even fact of releasing it...

Cheers

Per-Anders

03-19-2005, 10:25 PM

meme_sadie,

Unless I'm completely missing what you're asking for, we already have it in Painter IX and we had it in Painter 8 as well, some of it in several earlier versions too.

The Painter IX and Painter 8 Paint Bucket tool does work on Layer Masks and on Alpha Channels, as does the Painter IX and Painter 8 Effects > Fill command work on both Layer Masks and Alpha Channels.

actually you're right, however the fill bucket doesen't work untill you have initially filled the layer mask using the Effects->Fill option (which I didn't even consider originally as the original paint bucket didn't work). this is a bug (as a layer mask should contain some color fill data).

I'm not sure where you find a command named "create layer mask from selection". I think you might be talking about Alpha Channels (that can be created by saving selections) not Layer Masks.

In any case, that's exactly what Painter IX, Painter 8, and earlier version Alpha Channels or User Masks do.

They mask the area around the selection to protect it from being affected by painting or Effects menu options. That's the default behavior and unless the Alpha Channel or User Mask is inverted, or the loaded selection is inverted, or another Drawing Mode icon is chosen, only the unmasked area will be affected.

Mask = hide or protect

Hide = Layer Masks

Protect = Alpha Channels or in earlier versions, User Masks

here i was incorrectly making an assumption. what i was looking at was Layers->Create Mask from Transparency. I had assumed there would be a method of taking the selection and turning it into the layer mask (as it is possible in photoshop).

please do start to believe that I do know at least some aspects of painter reasonably well... i have been using it since version 3 (and do at least know somewhat about masks, alphas etc). the lack of these features still bugs me. there should be a Create Mask from Selection option, I don't want to have to fill either the mask or the layer first. it shoudl also be possible to pick up a layers transparency directly using shortcuts and the layers/channels palettes as you can do in photoshop, not via contextual menus. these are basic masking functions (and masking needs improvement in painter in so very many ways).

Jinbrown

03-21-2005, 12:34 PM

mdme_sadie,

I understand you want Painter to work like Photoshop and it doesn't hurt to ask for changes. In the meantime, however, there are ways to do all the things you mention.

actually you're right, however the fill bucket doesen't work untill you have initially filled the layer mask using the Effects->Fill option (which I didn't even consider originally as the original paint bucket didn't work). this is a bug (as a layer mask should contain some color fill data).

If the Layer is transparent, by default, its new Layer Mask is white. I don't have any trouble at all using the Paint Bucket tool to fill a Layer Mask.

http://www.pixelalley.com/cgtalk/lyr_msk_fill_with_pnt_bkt_tool.jpg

here i was incorrectly making an assumption. what i was looking at was Layers->Create Mask from Transparency. I had assumed there would be a method of taking the selection and turning it into the layer mask (as it is possible in photoshop).

If a Layer is entirely transparent and the Create Layer Mask from Transparency command is used, the Layer Mask will be entirely black. If there's only a selection (i.e. marching ants) with no color inside or outside the selection, the resulting Layer Mask will still be entirely black. The Create Layer Mask from Transparency command is usually used when there's some color on the Layer and some transparent area.

There are a couple of ways to create a Layer Mask based on a selection, though they may not be the same as Photoshop's method.

Here's the easiest way I know of unless you already have an Alpha Channel based on that selection in which case you could duplicate that Alpha Channel to the Layer Mask:

1. Created a new Layer.

2. Make a selection.

3. Create a Layer Mask.

4. Click the Layer Mask thumbnail.

5. Invert the selection (or leave the selection as is to mask the inside of the selection rather than the surrounding area.)

6. Click inside the selection using the Paint Bucket tool.

http://www.pixelalley.com/cgtalk/lyr_msk_from_selection.jpg

please do start to believe that I do know at least some aspects of painter reasonably well... i have been using it since version 3 (and do at least know somewhat about masks, alphas etc). the lack of these features still bugs me. there should be a Create Mask from Selection option, I don't want to have to fill either the mask or the layer first. it shoudl also be possible to pick up a layers transparency directly using shortcuts and the layers/channels palettes as you can do in photoshop, not via contextual menus. these are basic masking functions (and masking needs improvement in painter in so very many ways).

It really doesn't matter what I believe. The point is to share information that will help people use Painter easily and efficiently. If my responses seem a bit basic it's because first, I don't know how much else people know when they ask questions. Second, other people who may not know Painter as well as you do also read these threads.

For quick ways to invoke menu commands:

Use Edit > Preferences > Customize Keys to set up your own keyboard shortcuts for things like Layer > Create Layer Mask from Transparency or other commands.

and/or....

Create a Custom Palette and add main menu and palette menu commands as a buttons.

Per-Anders

03-21-2005, 06:49 PM

i'm sorry, but something is either wrong with my install, or there is a bug in painter.

make a new document
make a new layer
click the make new layer mask button
select the layer mask
make a selection
use the fill tool (pick any color at all).
try and fill the selection.

nothing at all happens.

this is a bug. the layer mask is not transparent after all, only the layer is.

in order to be able to use the bucket i have to go to Effets->Fill and then only after that i am able to fill the layer mask.

---------------

on the create layer from transparency. i know how it works, i posted that i incorrectly made an assumption. the assumption was that it was create layer from selection.

as posted before the fill tool paintbucket tool does not work.

---------------

thankyou for posting about the keyboard shortcuts, in this instance I was already aware of this information, however it's really nothing to do with my needs for bug fixes/improvements.

a solution to the create layer mask from selection issue would be to make a script and put it on a custom palette. it's temporary, and not very elegant, and changes the color for you when you really don't want it to, but it does work. i'd prefer if Corel would make it an option at the bottom of the layers palette as it is in Photoshop, especially after much of the fuss over the interface changes put in place by Corel to bring Painter more into line with the Photoshop environment in V8.

mcarp

03-21-2005, 09:15 PM

The single biggest thing I would like is a fix for this save bug where the file repoens with the lower third or so tinted some other color and the darkest values reversed to white.

This was a common event in early version of Painter. It pretty much went away in 7 and 8, and now it seems to be back with a vengeance.

Jinbrown

03-21-2005, 09:35 PM

i'm sorry, but something is either wrong with my install, or there is a bug in painter.

make a new document
make a new layer
click the make new layer mask button
select the layer mask
make a selection
use the fill tool (pick any color at all).
try and fill the selection.

nothing at all happens.

It sounds like you're doing exactly what I did but I have a couple of questions:

1. When you selected the Layer Mask did it have a highlight around it? It should if it's really selected.

2. After you used the Paint Bucket tool to fill the selection, did you click the Layer Mask again? If not, try it. I have to do that to make the thumbnail display the change and show the selection was actually filled.

this is a bug. the layer mask is not transparent after all, only the layer is.

The Layer Mask would not be transparent, even if the Layer was transparent. It would be white, following the steps you and I outlined.

in order to be able to use the bucket i have to go to Effets->Fill and then only after that i am able to fill the layer mask.

After you check the two things I asked about, let me know. I can't think of anything else that could be causing this problem and maybe it'll be time to write to Rick Champagne about it. Check those two things first, though. Sometimes it's something so little it's easy to overlook or just not think of it.

---------------

on the create layer from transparency. i know how it works, i posted that i incorrectly made an assumption. the assumption was that it was create layer from selection.

as posted before the fill tool paintbucket tool does not work.

---------------

thankyou for posting about the keyboard shortcuts, in this instance I was already aware of this information, however it's really nothing to do with my needs for bug fixes/improvements.

a solution to the create layer mask from selection issue would be to make a script and put it on a custom palette. it's temporary, and not very elegant, and changes the color for you when you really don't want it to, but it does work. i'd prefer if Corel would make it an option at the bottom of the layers palette as it is in Photoshop, especially after much of the fuss over the interface changes put in place by Corel to bring Painter more into line with the Photoshop environment in V8.

That would be nice, I agree.

Per-Anders

03-22-2005, 01:09 AM

1) yup it's definitely selected
2) yes, it remains steadfastly empty till i use the Effect->Fill option, whereupon it starts to work as expected.

Jinbrown

03-22-2005, 02:05 AM

That certainly is odd. I don't think I've ever seen an empty new Layer Mask. They're either white or black or a combination thereof.

Oh well...

DigitalShade

03-26-2005, 06:18 AM

I would like to see a real artist oils round. :)

epoxy5

03-27-2005, 09:51 PM

Well a lot have been said, but I would really like the following options, in order to get a more personal layout..

The mixer pallette should be able to resize, right now it's way too small for my taste.

The custom toolbars should be much more flexible, you should be able to have 'em in any size and also be able to add the icons/variants without Painter sorting them in a special way. And it should also be possible to give all custom variants a name under their icon, so it's more easy to navigate between the variants.

For instance make a custom toolbar and call it "Blenders" then add perhaps 5 different blenders and give them all unique names under the small icon "Smooth blender", "Rough blender" etc. ...

ogar555

04-03-2005, 04:10 PM

Okay, to begin with, i would like for the Brush Increment [ and ], to have numbers like 0.1 , 0.2 etc... (don't remember what it's called) 'cause now, if i try changing it to such a number it says: Illegal Numeric format... I'm just asking to add the possibility to add ONE number after the, uuuh, number... you know like 20.5 or 3.2 not like 1.351 or 99.009810...
oooh, and then i also have to agree with some people that are talking about being able to move the palettes outside the main window! And the flow option... maybe it could be so that one can choose between using 'normal' painter opacity, and 'photoshop' opacity and flow!! And it would also be good if one could change the viewing mode in the customized palettes, (for brushes etc...) so one can se stroke or how the brush looks, and maybe make it easier to edit custom palettes, like removing things from them! honestly, i have no idea if this is possible currently, maybe someone could tell me how if it is? 'cause i accidently added a brush in the wrong spot on a palette and i'm not allowed to move it again... neither am i allowed to delete it... or rather i dont know how... :sad:
Now i've been using the Painter IX trial for about a day and it rocks! I'm gonna buy the retail next week! Then look forward to the upcoming patch(es)... :P
see ya!

Jinbrown

04-03-2005, 07:53 PM

Hi ogar555,

We can edit Custom Palettes easily. To learn how, read the following:

Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > A Workspace Tour

On the right panel, click Custom Palettes.

On the next page, scroll down to the section named "Modifying Custom Palettes" and the sub sections named "To rearrange the layout in a custom palette" and "To delete an item from a custom palette".

It'd be good to read that whole page as it'll answer questions that will probably come up later.

Andre Jackson

04-05-2005, 02:54 AM

I'd like to see painter support transparency.

Infact, I'm fairly sure the reason why painter cannot reproduce the much coveted effect you get by altering photoshops brush opacity settings is because painter doesn't seem to support true transparency.

If you want an example (at least with painter 8, I don't have 9), create a layer above your canvas and start using a blending brush. Unlike photoshop where you will merely spread any paints you have on that layer around, you will actually pick up white, regardless of what the layer underneath happens to be. Of course, you can change the layer to pick up the underlying color, but that presents problems as well, as you will start 'erasing' the above layer as you are constantly sampling from the layer underneath.

Infact, you would be able to reproduce that markery effect in painter perfectly by altering the 'well' settings. The only problem is, since painter does not support real transparency, it picks color from the pixels where you begin your stroke and permanantly blends your primary color with it.

Of course, I know you'd never see that kind of enchancement in a mere patch. Software makers love to milk every cent they can out of the consumer, especially since making such drastic changes would actually require real effort. maybe in Painter X.

Drevious

04-15-2005, 03:18 PM

- to move objects with shift key just like drawing straight lines
- to be albe to flatten impasto without saving it to other format than rif

Hold down the Ctrl/Command+Shift keys to temporarily activate the Layer Adjuster tool and move objects around.

- to be albe to flatten impasto without saving it to other format than rif

We can do that in Painter IX and it takes just a few seconds. Do this the first time on a copy of your image in case you miss a step:

1. Close the Eye icons for any items (i.e. Shapes, Text Layers) you don't want flattened, then use File > Clone.

2. If the working image Canvas has Impasto on it, select the Canvas and lift it to a Layer, then drag it to the bottom of the Layers list.

3. Hold down the Shift key and highlight the lifted Canvas and any other Layers that were included in the Clone, then close the Group's Eye icon and Lock the Group.

4. Copy the Clone and paste it onto your working image as a single Layer that retains the appearance of Impasto lighting and depth.

5. Once you're sure you won't need the Grouped Layers anymore, just delete the Group.

Drevious

04-16-2005, 10:16 PM

In Painter IX, when the following tools are active:

Hold down the Ctrl/Command+Shift keys to temporarily activate the Layer Adjuster tool and move objects around.

Jinny, lol. Could u tell me, for what i need a knowledge of moving objects around? I didnt ask for moving around...

We can do that in Painter IX and it takes just a few seconds. Do this the first time on a copy of your image in case you miss a step:

eh... no comments. Corel will know what s about

Jinbrown

04-17-2005, 12:49 AM

Hi Drevious,

I'm pretty experienced with Painter and deciphering users' questions, after a decade of using Painter and answering questions so I'm a bit confused, but do apologize for my misunderstanding of what you wanted.

Jinny, lol. Could u tell me, for what i need a knowledge of moving objects around? I didnt ask for moving around...

I was responding to what you asked for In your previous post:

- to move objects with shift key just like drawing straight lines

Since we have a keyboard shortcut to move objects around, even though it's not the Shift key alone, it seemed logical to tell you what the keyboard shortcut is.

If that's not what you were asking for, I guess your request wasn't stated clearly or I'm just not getting it.

- to be albe to flatten impasto without saving it to other format than rif

then, after I responded...

eh... no comments. Corel will know what s about

Again, if my response to this request didn't address what you were asking for, I guess the request wasn't stated clearly enough. Let's hope Corel can understand what you meant better than I did. ;)

Good luck!

Drevious

04-17-2005, 01:12 AM

I'm pretty experienced with Painter and deciphering users' questions, after a decade of using Painter and answering questions so I'm a bit confused, but do apologize for my misunderstanding of what you wanted.

no words, only artworks.

Let's hope Corel can understand what you meant better than I did. ;)

of course they will know, im sure they are not theoreticians and have at least basic knowledge about some of those options included in photoshop for years.

Good luck!

..to Corel

Drevious

04-18-2005, 12:26 PM

this would be also cool:

- something similar to photoshop actions, and to be able to asaign each other to hotkey

Steve Green

04-19-2005, 04:49 PM

Hi,

I really wish someone at Corel would rewrite the routine that shows brush outlines/radii - it's awfully slow at large sizes compared to the equivalent in Photoshop.

Thanks,

Steve

RangTang

04-27-2005, 01:16 PM

Bring back Painter 3d features. It doesn't need to be Painter 3D, just the use of simple projection modes and 3D viewing for now, then in the next version bring the 3d feature set up to date with UV editing.

x-a-n-a-x

04-29-2005, 09:11 AM

I would like to be able to resize palettes, especially the layers one. I can do it a bit but it seems it's bocked to 320pixels in height, it's annoying, they look restricted in size.

ryokobubu

05-07-2005, 05:13 PM

I wish painter could have an "anti-aliasing" function like Open Canvas
in photoshop, when the zoomed size is 100%, 50% , 25%,
it provide an anti-aliased image view for a smooth, clear image. however, for speed reason, it doesn't provide this function in other zoomed size.

open canvas default processes this function in any zoom size, but it really slow down the speed, so it provide a switch to trun on/off this function and a hotkey to control it.

now painter didn't provide this function in any zoom size, and I wish painter can have this function.

thanks, Corel, Painter is really a great program, cheer up!

ps. forgive me my bad english. :)

Drevious

05-08-2005, 05:21 PM

zooming like this can be found in painter 6 (its even better than in Photoshop-faster), and its added to the wishlist of IX

Jinbrown

05-08-2005, 05:22 PM

I would like to be able to resize palettes, especially the layers one. I can do it a bit but it seems it's bocked to 320pixels in height, it's annoying, they look restricted in size.

In WinXP Home SP2 using both Painter 8.1 and Painter IX, I can make the Layers palette as large as I want though the minimum size when I do a screen print of the Layers palette at minimum size and paste it into a new image that's 72 ppi, the dimensions are 224 pixels wide x 315 pixels high.

To make the Layers palette taller and/or wider, it needs to be first separated from other docked palettes, then stretched by clicking, holding, and dragging the lower right corner of the Layers palette.

hermine

05-08-2005, 10:40 PM

Optimize the "Camel" setting, i got a 1.2 ghz system with 650 in ram and only can use this setting till a 14 size brush, beyond this the feedback is no more in real time.

Per-Anders

05-09-2005, 02:20 AM

a slider for "Dirty" with artists oils, so you can blend between having fully dirty brushes and fully clean brushes. also a "Clean" button so you don't have to pick again from the palette at the time you do want to add in a bit more of the original color.

pejot

05-11-2005, 12:05 PM

What I really would like to have in Painter is the full preview of color manipulation effects (Effects>Tonal Control>...).
There is only a little window where I can see a 100% zoom piece and it's impossible to zoom out the preview! It's useless if I want to change a big part (ex: all background color tone) of the image.
Each time I have to open photoshop and then make all color changes.

Drevious

05-11-2005, 02:22 PM

This has been already added to the wishlist, but yes, it would be very cool to have option like this

cheers

Brucie Rosch

05-15-2005, 08:07 PM

A few wishes (apologies if they've been covered):

1) add my voice to the ArtRage oil brush texture/grain behavior
1a) it would be cool to be able to change the dryness of a brush with a keystroke similar to the brush size change ( [ = smaller :: ] = bigger). In other words we could dry out a brush to get a shorter stroke with more texture showing without having to choose another varient in a palette.
1b) any advanced work that the Painter team would like to do it going further and further in achieving real art material behavior would be enthusiastically welcomed by me

3) I'd like to be able to show names of brushes (papers, etc.) in custom palettes, so I can name my favorite tools for my favorite tasks and workflow

4) real world behavior brainstorming list:
-drips -- maybe we could point to an area that we want to drip and we get longer and shorter drips depending on brush size?
-spatters that are more real looking (toothbrush splatter, paint brush splatter)
-dribbling with changing widths of the paint line a la Jackson Pollock
-paper tearing (just mentioning it -- can't imagine how it would be implemented!)
-paint roller or squeegee where the paint is 'pulled' and maybe there's a line of paint left at the end of the stroke?
-surface degrading tools... different ways to chip away and destroy the surface maybe with options about how many layers get penetrated... Jim Dine would use all kinds of surface degradation on his artwork... power tools, sandpaper, who knows what else?
-more interesting erasers to help with the previous idea -- surface degradation in different styles, very controllable
-a tool that scratches and tears the paper

Another thought... I've tried to bring in bigger paper textures and run into error messages (unable to create paper). I'd like to be able to bring in a photo of a wood surface, gesso it (so to speak) and have a duplicate hi res paper texture that matches the wood grain. With better surface texture brushes to work with the wood surface (or concrete sidewalk, or particle board or whatever).

If the above request is a memory issue, here's my next request. I'd like to be able to put much more memory in my system and let Painter use it to take advantage of bigger textures. I've got 2.5GB now and I'd be willing to put in more to get me more resolution on my textures and so forth.

Brucie Rosch

05-15-2005, 08:24 PM

Another 'I second that' request or two:
- cursor that's easier to find on small brush sizes
- more control over the buildup on felt pens and other buildup style brushes... it very quickly goes over the top and in some instances you can't get the color you've chosen at all, not even with the first/lightest stroke. Makes (for me) many of these tools unusable.

More words on the texture issue:

I want to work at 300-450ppi at sizes up to 11 x 14 (bigger might be out of the question!), more often 6 x 8 or 7 x 10. I'd really like to be able to fake that I'm working on a real piece of paper, or on a wood panel or whatever. I'd like to be able to open up a photo of the actual material and use Photoshop to make up a good same-sized paper texture.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't think this is possible now... either to do what I just said, or, as Mdme Sadie was discussing, work with an oil brush that really drags over the surface that I've created.

And then I'd like to use some good surface degradation tools to work back to the surface in a way that really uses the texture to produce a great fake! I want great control over these tools and I want them to take into consideration the layers that I've laid over the surface.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

hermine

05-24-2005, 07:52 PM

Memory management and an appli free of bugs fgs.

donseeg

05-27-2005, 04:23 PM

to be able to interactively rotate a paper texture.

Cheers
Don
www.seegmillerart.com (http://www.seegmillerart.com/)

Brucie Rosch

05-31-2005, 03:42 PM

A couple more wishes:

• the ability to resize custom palettes as narrow as 2 icons
• the ability to group custom palettes together under tabs, like so:

the tabs across a custom palette might look like this...

oil | line | opaque ...and

erase | blend ...and

textured | paper

If I could arrange my favorite tools like this, and see the names in the palettes (previous request) what a timesaver it would be!

Brucie Rosch

05-31-2005, 03:47 PM

I'm going to check to see if it's possible to do this already (apologies if it *is*), but I'd like to be able to save the paper attributes along with the texture -- have it 'remembered' between Painter sessions.

IOW, when I use charcoal or chaulk and I choose my paper, then set the scaling, brightness and contrast, I'd like the paper settings to be retained for my next work session. And maybe able to name specific paper settings as custom variants.

Hiipi

06-01-2005, 09:38 AM

Hallo.

I´ve seen this topic pop up every once in a while but so far I haven´t found an answer to it. Can you change your brushes (or whatever you have...) on your Custom Palette via keyboard shortcuts? In my workflow I find this really helpful if you can, like in PS - Brush and Eraser. Those basically are the ones that would help alot but of course full control over your Custom Palette would be perfect. Please tell me weather or not this is possible!

And what Ceenda said about resizing the brush with Ctrl-Alt is totally true, you shouldn´t need to activate your brush with a tap after resizing. Don´t like that.

´nuff said. Thankxss.

catnip

06-05-2005, 03:45 AM

I would love to be able to save a Targa file with an alpha channel or mask in Painter. I use Painter to create texture maps for 3D models, and currently I have to open the file in Photoshop and create my alphas there. I use Animation:Master, for which Targas are the preferred file format.

Also, how about being able to convert a file to grayscale from within Painter? That would help with bump maps, etc. I realize you can get the same effect by desaturating the image, but it's still RGB, which results in a larger file size. Right now, I use Photoshop to convert to grayscale.

Finally, would it be possible to have the OK and Cancel buttons in the Windows version be in the right order for Windows? Currently, it's reversed, and I keep clicking Cancel instead of OK...

Thanks!

BartW

06-07-2005, 12:22 PM

Another 'I second that' request or two:
- cursor that's easier to find on small brush sizes
- more control over the buildup on felt pens and other buildup style brushes... it very quickly goes over the top and in some instances you can't get the color you've chosen at all, not even with the first/lightest stroke. Makes (for me) many of these tools unusable.

This is EXACTLY what I've been waiting for !! ;)

I need some prismacolor like design markers out-of-the-box, that build up the way digital watercolor do...like drying up your work and build up a new layer with the same % of cool grey (for instance).

Also the small brush sizes really is a big problem for me....

djs37

06-14-2005, 06:59 AM

I'm enjoying Painter IX and think (maybe) that it's better than the demo version but that could just be me being a bit dim.

I quite liked the magic wand in version 7. You could make a selection and then adjust the tolerance or whether it was contiguous and the selection would update automatically. It seems that in version IX, you have to reselect with the wand, which just takes more time.

Cheers

Somhairle

06-24-2005, 10:40 PM

Although some of these would be more for a NEW version of painter, here goes...

- save brush library as...

- copy variant to....(browse)
This one has been bugging me when I want to work quickly.

1) I think it's good if Corel IX have Cells-Export function (Extract Layers to mono pictures)
Which can Export 1 Group---> 1 Picture

Ex:

Picture have 6 Groups , 1 Group have 5 layers .

Export Cells -----> got 6 Pictures, 1 picture have 5 layers.

2), I'm Student of Animation club (as you know as ' Otaku Circle') - based on Jap Style , as you know nowaday almost of it need Digital painting instead of real Acylic.

But still need Real paper, and real G-pen for creat the line . we spend very - hard - money for a 6,000 papers. And a Lightbox burn my Eye. I try to setting Scratchboard pen , but it's still something different from real G-pen.

I think we need G-pen tool.

3) Screen tone : I think Corel Painter IX Was the Most-Huge-Large Software ever i seen before. But it's very sad for me that it can't support my works . Manga need Screen tone. ( I mean screen tone which can freely fill like you fill a colour by a brush, not Mask)

4) New canvas ---> Choose A4 , B5 , etc.

However I'm a kid who just finished Senior Highschool. you may not earnest my reply.

I guess their isn't a chance for me to get dual monitor support w/ version 8?

theHen

08-09-2005, 05:40 PM

I would be delighted to see that the digital watercolor tools acted the same both on the canvas and in the layers.

An example: I have a document with the canvas and a layer. I paint a pool of black on both surfaces with the New Simple Water tool. I now brush very softly (using a Wacom tablet) with the same tool on both the pool of paint on the canvas and the one in the layer. The result is that on the canvas nothing appears to happen but in the layer the new brushstroke is lightgray.

Perhaps there is some use for this that I don't understand.

Keep up the good work!

Jinbrown

08-10-2005, 09:16 PM

I would be delighted to see that the digital watercolor tools acted the same both on the canvas and in the layers.

An example: I have a document with the canvas and a layer. I paint a pool of black on both surfaces with the New Simple Water tool. I now brush very softly (using a Wacom tablet) with the same tool on both the pool of paint on the canvas and the one in the layer. The result is that on the canvas nothing appears to happen but in the layer the new brushstroke is lightgray.

Perhaps there is some use for this that I don't understand.

Keep up the good work!

Hi,

For the Digital Watercolor's New Simple Water variant, in its default state, Opacity Expression is controlled by Pressure.

I just tested what you described and on the Layer, when I only applied light pressure and painted from the center of the black "pool" outward, the brushstroke was grey from beginning to end. On the Canvas, the brushstroke was black at the center of the black "pool" and only became grey as I applied light pressure and the brushstroke continued out onto the white Canvas.

Try it again but this time:

First restore the brush variant to its default state.
Then when you paint on the Layer, apply enough pressure to make the brushstroke black.

theHen

08-12-2005, 09:17 AM

Jinbrown, thank you for answering.

I now understand why the paint and tool behaves the way it does in the layer, but I still do not like it. Is there any way to adjust the tools so that they behave in the same way that they appear to behave on the canvas, and still preserv the layer's unused areas transparent?

I have worked a great deal with another version of painter, painter classic, and it is from this I have my understanding and experience of painter. From the first moment, what I liked about painter was its strive to imitate traditional artmaterials (since thats where I have my background as an artist). Gaining access to a more advanced version of painter was someting I looked forward to when I bought IX but I haven't been abel to find that which I liked most about "classic". Making a color lighter by appling it more gently just have no resemblance to traditional art materials.

If you, or anybody else for that matter, could help me with this I would be most greatful.

Jinbrown

08-13-2005, 01:22 PM

Hi,

This discussion should really be moved to its own thread since this thread is meant to be used as a "Wishlist for upcoming Painter IX patch".

If you want to discuss this further, please begin a new thread and include enough information so we won't have to go back and forth between that thread and this one to understand what's going on.

Also, include:

Which Painter Classic version you have.
Exactly which brush categories and which brush variants you liked in Painter Classic and whether or not you used them on the Canvas, on a Layer, or both.

(If you had the use of Layers, you must have been using procreate Painter Classic 2 since Layers were not available in Metacreations Painter Classic 1.)

If you were actually using the newer "lite" Painter version, Painter Essentials, I won't be able to help much since I don't have that version.

theHen

08-15-2005, 08:37 PM

Jinbrown you are absolutly right, I'm sorry for making this knot on the thread.

It initially was meant as part of the whishlist; I would really like to see that tools acted the same, or could be choosen to act the same, both on canvas and in layers in the next version of painter.

I wasn't thinking about the possibility to actually solve the problem within painter IX. You have opened my eyes to this possibility and I will take yuor advice and start a new tread coserning the canvas/layer problem.

bye

PetriJ

08-17-2005, 11:18 PM

I'd like to see painter support transparency.

Infact, I'm fairly sure the reason why painter cannot reproduce the much coveted effect you get by altering photoshops brush opacity settings is because painter doesn't seem to support true transparency.

If you want an example (at least with painter 8, I don't have 9), create a layer above your canvas and start using a blending brush. Unlike photoshop where you will merely spread any paints you have on that layer around, you will actually pick up white, regardless of what the layer underneath happens to be. Of course, you can change the layer to pick up the underlying color, but that presents problems as well, as you will start 'erasing' the above layer as you are constantly sampling from the layer underneath.

Infact, you would be able to reproduce that markery effect in painter perfectly by altering the 'well' settings. The only problem is, since painter does not support real transparency, it picks color from the pixels where you begin your stroke and permanantly blends your primary color with it.

Of course, I know you'd never see that kind of enchancement in a mere patch. Software makers love to milk every cent they can out of the consumer, especially since making such drastic changes would actually require real effort. maybe in Painter X.

Yes, I agree, that this is a big loss in this program. I think that you'll just have to get photoshop too if you want to play with those brushes. I don't think I'm never going to buy updates for painter anymore. I thik that this version has all that they have to offer. Ofcourse you could send a message to painter developers, about this opacity issue, incase they haven't relized it.

As a (soon to be) grafical designer, I can't help but wince when I see that horrible excuse for a logo. If I turned something like this in at school, my teacher would probably ban me for life *shudders*

tinckelly

08-19-2005, 06:05 PM

I've only one wish...

MERGE DOWN.

That's it.

Currently you have to merge to the canvas. Not useful at all.

Jinbrown

08-20-2005, 01:22 AM

tinckelly,

You're not alone in asking for Photoshop's Merge Down command to be included in Painter.

In the meantime, you're not limited to "merge to the canvas" in Painter IX or earlier versions.

In Painter IX (keyboard shortcuts may be different in earlier versions):

In the Layers list, hold down the Shift key and highlight the Layers you want to "merge".
Use Ctrl/Command+G to Group the highlighted Layers.
Use Ctrl/Command+Shift+X to Collapse the Group make it a single Layer.
If you add these two commands to a Custom Palette as menu command buttons then highlight the Layers, it'll take one click on each icon to make them a single Layer.

.........

tinckelly

08-23-2005, 11:08 AM

Bless you Jin.

I've been using Painter since '95 and it had never occured to me to do that.
How utterly stupid.

You've NO idea how happy I am, and how much time you've just saved me.

Thank you very much.

Jinbrown

08-24-2005, 12:40 AM

Hi,

Bless you too!... for letting me know I've made you happy.

Funny... I just checked in Painter 5 and, though the keyboard shortcut for Collapse, seems not to be documented, it works the same as in Painter IX!

Back when I was using Painter 5 as the then current version, it didn't occur to me to even look for that keyboard shortcut.

In case you don't already know, the keyboard shortcut for Ungroup is Ctrl/Command+U.

Big thanks for that information. I allways switched to ps and back to do this merge down all the time.

Bless you!

I tested the short cuts on painter 6 and they worked fine.

regards
fahrija

pushav

08-31-2005, 04:21 PM

I wish they would make patches for painter 7 also. All I ask is that i can see my cursor when i paint in stead of that triangle and better water color and no need to dry it and the ability to duplicate my canvas layer like in photoshop.

Jinbrown

09-01-2005, 01:32 PM

Edit: Link to Corel's FTP server has been corrected. Jin, September 1, 2005

pushav,

There is one patch for Painter 7, the Painter 7.1 Update, available to download at...

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/7

...and I doubt very much if any more patches will be released for Painter 7 since it's not the current version.. in fact, it's two versions back now.

To duplicate the Canvas, use Ctrl/Command+A to select the entire Canvas, then hold down the Alt/Option key and click inside the selection with the Layer Adjuster tool.

Why do you need to dry the Water Color Layer? (Just curious.)

To paint on the Water Color Layer using dry brush variants (non-Water Color variants), it does need to be converted to a Default Layer or dropped to the Canvas (if that's what you mean).

pushav

09-02-2005, 01:56 AM

The link does not work.:shrug:
Sometimes I use the water color for flatting of flat coloring my image. I usually paint on that layer also yo have to dry the layer before color selecting the color buy using alt.

Woohoo! thanks for that dulpicate canvas tutorial.

I reall want to see my cursor when I paint badly.

And I wish painter 9 could work on older operating systems. I don't feel like installing windows xp right now. lol.

Thanks Jin.

Here is the ftp site with all of the painter patches ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/

Jinbrown

09-02-2005, 04:34 AM

The link does not work.:shrug:
Sometimes I use the water color for flatting of flat coloring my image. I usually paint on that layer also yo have to dry the layer before color selecting the color buy using alt.

That's odd. I just tried it. With the Brush tool selected, I held down the Alt key and clicked on the Water Color Layer to select a different color from the one I last used and it worked.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I installed the Painter 7 Update (patch) long ago?

Woohoo! thanks for that dulpicate canvas tutorial.

You're most welcome! There are other ways to do it, but that's the easiest, or the one I use most, and it's one of the ways that ensures the Layer will be directly aligned with the Canvas, or directly above its original position.

I reall want to see my cursor when I paint badly.

I think you must mean that you want to see the Brush Ghost while you're painting as you already see whichever one of several cursor options you selected in Edit > Preferences > General. Those options are, Triangle cursor (a choice of several angles and several colors) and Single Pixel cursor.

And I wish painter 9 could work on older operating systems. I don't feel like installing windows xp right now. lol.

That problem is only going to get worse. It's hard to keep up with everything isn't it? I'm falling behind too. It's just way too expensive!

Thanks Jin.

Here is the ftp site with all of the painter patches ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/

Thanks, I've corrected the URL in my post above. Sorry, I made the mistake of typing 7.1 instead of 7 at the end of the original URL. Too many version numbers to remember!

Eikichi-

09-03-2005, 01:57 AM

Hmm fixing the brush opacity control would be great =)

evanfotis

09-04-2005, 01:03 PM

A bit belated, but anyway...
I love the way Painter paints, applys dads etc, BUT:

Has anyone worked with scripts?
This feature has remained unchanged since version 4...
Although a great idea, please make it more usable:
When tying torecord a session and output it to a movie file, like the procces of a drawing:
>Easier editing of the script.
>when open script, the ability to show/highlight the strokes in the menu, to be able to find them.
> More output options about frames per second etc
> More stable and predictable results, when creating a movie

As mentioned, make those menus resizable to any size!!!
Again make those previews on the canvas, not in the window.
The same goes with tranformations... Painter is supposed to aim at the Visual artist.. How the heck to transform blindly?

I totally agree with the removal of that tastleless startup logo ...
I agree with Drevious:
- an idea to draw fast freehand circles: with Shift we can achieve straight lines, but my idea is to add combination of Shift+Alt for establishing the radius of the circle, then release alt key and with the Shift key hold, we can go on the invisible circle by moving our hand. For designers it would be very useful thing.

- when free transforming, to view "on the fly" what we are modificating.

furrykef

09-20-2005, 04:25 PM

My own two cents in case there'll be another Painter patch (and if not it can go in Painter X): being able to use the magic wand on alpha channels, like you can do in Photoshop (reportedly -- I don't use Photoshop myself). If I try to do this the magic wand selects whatever's on the current layer, not the channel. I haven't found an equivalent way of doing this. This would make it possible to store multiple selections in one channel... after all each channel gets 256 colors of resolution and it's a huge waste (and mess) to set up thirty-two different channels for thirty-two selections when you can fit eight times that in a single channel.

Forgive me if there's a way to do this already, but I really don't see one, other than using a layer instead... which isn't so bad anyway, but it'd be nice to be able to get the same use out of channels. That way your selection channel won't get in the way of your actual artwork.

- Kef

olduttycruff

10-03-2005, 10:47 PM

I wish they could have a Path pallete that would allow for you to store paths

I wish painter could work on the sizing issue when I cut and paste paths from other programs to Painter Im always finding myself having to scale the path up in size because it always smaller in Painter

ogar555

10-17-2005, 11:18 PM

It would be great if the following would be fixed:

-When making a palette with "Command-shortcuts" to different Layouts in the Arrange Palettes. (for me it always ends up as "Default" no matter which pre-saved Layout i choose)

btw, i use version 9.1!

//cheers!

marlouin

11-22-2005, 12:30 AM

Hey, I'm really new to painter.
So this what I noticed.

1) I'll second the merging layer thing: just select 2 or more layers, then use the collapse fonction in the layer menu.

2) I'll also second previewing effects, this is ridiculous. Try changing color curves and you are in blind mode.

3) better layout redraw

4) not so important but modernize a bit the gui (old icons, cursors)

5) permit layers in animation mode

6) far more picture formats (at least png)

that's all for now

BartW

11-23-2005, 11:11 AM

Let me make a solid contribution for once here ;)

What I still would like to see in painter is:
- Shortcut keys to change a color's hue, saturation and value seperately (so 6 shortcuts). This would eliminate the use of the color picker (which is FAR too small imo) and would save a lot of time if I'm working in full screen.

- Window transparency. Windows in the UI should have an option to make them transparent so you can still see your artwork no matter how many windows you have opened.

- Or an UI upgrade that would include a minimized version of the UI, which would fit as much into eachother as possible, with as little borders and space inside windows as possible.

- Better and easier way to save your favorite sets of brushes/tools in seperate windows. Right now, when I drag an icon onto that window in an incorrect place (like a row too low, which makes the window larger) I'm not able to just pick the icon up again and drag it to another place. This is very weird and unfinished imo.

- As additional option to the previous thing, it wouldn't hurt to have the choice to store color and other settings together with a selection of brushes. Just so you could prepare a set of tools before starting on a project.

- French Curves! I want french curves in Painter....I still have trouble creating accurate large curves with my wacom tablet. I'm thinking of a tool that would allow me to turn 3 French Curvers around on screen and select whatever part I need, either as line art or as a guide for future hand drawn work.

BartW

11-23-2005, 11:17 AM

I have to agree on the modernizing the UI, but like I said, I don't mind the same look, but just more optimized space, like having icons at half the size.....sort of compressed look.

Or how about giving people freedom to make their own UI like in 3ds max ? That would give people the freedom to do whatever they like themselves.

Sorry if I'm repeating myself a bit ;)

evanfotis

11-23-2005, 11:33 AM

Let me make a solid contribution for once here ;)

What I still would like to see in painter is:
- Window transparency. Windows in the UI should have an option to make them transparent so you can still see your artwork no matter how many windows you have opened.
- Better and easier way to save your favorite sets of brushes/tools in seperate windows. Right now, when I drag an icon onto that window in an incorrect place (like a row too low, which makes the window larger) I'm not able to just pick the icon up again and drag it to another place. This is very weird and unfinished imo.

Transparent menus would slow down your machine,apart for making it confusing to see...

As for draging brushes to custom menus and rearanging, hold SHIFT to move them in desired position.

Philippec

11-23-2005, 12:22 PM

Transparent menus would slow down your machine,apart for making it confusing to see...

In modern operating systems, this transparency is handled on the video card so you probably would not see a slowdown. Plus it would be pretty cool. I don't think it would be confusing, but there should be a slider to set the palette's transparency...

CharleyParker

11-27-2005, 03:29 AM

Painter wish list

"Use all layers" option for magic wand

Ability to switch between tools (like brush and eraser) with a key command (or switch between previous and current tool at least)

Better control of where the beginning and end of a gradation is applied within a selection

Ability to switch between tools (like brush and eraser) with a key command

You can do this in Painter Essentials 3, since there is a new "Eraser" tool in the toolbox. The (configurable) keyboard shortcut is "n" for the Eraser, "b" (as always) for the brush.

Presumably, you will be able to do this in future versions of Painter as well.

evanfotis

11-28-2005, 07:45 PM

Blending modes for brushes and gradations, not just layers.

Brush controls (Ctrl+Shift+B) have the types a brush can be applied:
Cover, drip, buildup, plugin etc...

CharleyParker

11-29-2005, 10:48 PM

Philippec, that's good to know. Thanks.

evanfotis, thanks, I didn't realize that and it's useful.

In my original post, though, I was thinking of blending modes: lighten, darken, multiply, screen, etc., which can be applied to a brush in Photoshop, but only to an entire layer in Painter. In particular, it would be helpful to be able to use lighten or darken when working with a brush or gradient, and then switch to another mode or normal without having to create new layers for each mode.

evanfotis

11-30-2005, 12:30 PM

it would be helpful to be able to use lighten or darken when working with a brush or gradient, and then switch to another mode or normal without having to create new layers for each mode.

Painter brushes are made to simulate as much as possible natural media, and as such there are no lighten, difference, hard mix etc modes in brushes.
Using layer modes you can get your result.
Do not forget, Painter is for painting, and most people who paint digitally instead of traditionally, hardly ever use fancy modes or even layers...Thy just choose the right brush with colour, opacity etc, and get the result by painting over.
If you really need the blending modes in brushes, use Photoshop for more photographic effects like retouching etc. which offers a wider range in that area.

Jinbrown

11-30-2005, 08:37 PM

Do not forget, Painter is for painting, and most people who paint digitally instead of traditionally, hardly ever use fancy modes or even layers...Thy just choose the right brush with colour, opacity etc, and get the result by painting over.

That may be true for you and your friends and associates but it certainly is not true for most Painter users who paint. They very often use Layers, multiple Layers, and other Painter features to complete a painting.

Traditional artists do the same, layering paint. It's just easier in Painter, and often safer, to paint some parts of a painting on Layers, or even the entire painting on Layers. That allows for changes without damaging other parts of the painting.

There's nothing at all wrong with doing an entire painting on the Painter Canvas but it's certainly not necessary and often makes it more difficult than it needs to be. Using Painter is creating digital art, not traditional art and there's no need to deny oneself the benefits working digitally can provide.

evanfotis

12-01-2005, 11:27 AM

That may be true for you and your friends and associates but it certainly is not true for most Painter users who paint. They very often use Layers, multiple Layers, and other Painter features to complete a painting.

Traditional artists do the same, layering paint. It's just easier in Painter, and often safer, to paint some parts of a painting on Layers, or even the entire painting on Layers. That allows for changes without damaging other parts of the painting.

Please, do not misunderstand what I said. I agree I might have exaggerated a bit, but was just to emphasize my point.
Personally, I love layers,and from the very begining used them to separate characters, features, backgrounds etc.
I was actually frustrated at the time by the akward implementation of them by Painter comparing to PS and other apps. Not any more, except for the limited expansion of the layer pallete...

Jinbrown

12-02-2005, 01:30 AM

;)

I didn't misunderstand what you said. If you meant something else, it might have been helpful to say so, or at least to say you were exaggerating to make some kind of point.

Thanks for explaining what you did mean. I understand that as well.

gabeg

12-04-2005, 10:25 PM

It would be very helpful if u could drag the layer panel down as far as u wanted. Instead of having to use the scroll bar.

Lunatique

12-05-2005, 12:34 AM

It would be very helpful if u could drag the layer panel down as far as u wanted. Instead of having to use the scroll bar.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=294320

ashu_chikerur

12-05-2005, 06:51 AM

When u make a new pallete with ur selected brushes...once the icons are dragged onto the blank small cascaded window u cannt relocate the icons or change anything in the pallete..dunno very strange thing is when u resize the window to fit ina corner still the icons do not re adjust to accomodate in the resized window..
a very simple change is much needed in this pallete menu..

right now u have to go creating the palette over again to match ur needs.

Paniter ROCKS !!

Zephyrus

12-05-2005, 02:00 PM

I don't know if this has been posted earlier since I didn't go trough the whole thread, but,..
It would be nice to have another display option for the brushes. I mean having an image of an actual brush compared to the digital one.
That option would be extremely helpfull for artists who have traditional backgrounds.

Jinbrown

12-06-2005, 02:15 AM

When u make a new pallete with ur selected brushes...once the icons are dragged onto the blank small cascaded window u cannt relocate the icons or change anything in the pallete..dunno very strange thing is when u resize the window to fit ina corner still the icons do not re adjust to accomodate in the resized window..
a very simple change is much needed in this pallete menu..

right now u have to go creating the palette over again to match ur needs.

Paniter ROCKS !!

You're right that the icons don't reposition themselves when you resize a Custom Palette.

It's not true, however, that we can't rearrange the icons ourselves. We definitely can.

To learn how to create and use Custom Palettes, read the following:

Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > A Workspace Tour

On the right panel, click the link named "Custom Palettes" and read the page that displays next.

Jinbrown

12-06-2005, 02:23 AM

I don't know if this has been posted earlier since I didn't go trough the whole thread, but,..
It would be nice to have another display option for the brushes. I mean having an image of an actual brush compared to the digital one.
That option would be extremely helpfull for artists who have traditional backgrounds.

If you mean brush category icons, you can solve that yourself by creating an image to use as the brush category icon, then creating a custom brush category and copying the appropriate brush variants into that custom brush category.

To learn how to do this, read the following:

To learn how to create and use Custom Palettes, read the following:

Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > Customizing Brushes

On the right panel, click the link named "Managing Custom Brushes".

On the next page, read the following sections:

"Creating a New Brush Category"

"Copying Variants Between Brush Categories"

If you mean custom icons for each brush variant, create a custom brush category with an appropriate brush category icon for each brush variant, then copy those brush variants into the appropriate brush categories.

SylvanMist

12-09-2005, 01:53 AM

1. Well one thing that I miss from both Painter and photoshop is the ability to zoom in/out with the mouse wheel the way you can in Corel Draw. It's so easy, fast and efficient.

2. Already mentioned but i'll say it too: add more customizablitity to the menus. Something like corel draw where you can basically customize all your tool bars and menus fully.

marlouin

12-10-2005, 02:35 AM

Some other things I found:

-I'd like an option to deactivate mouse wheel zoom, at least when the cursor is not in the image.

-Also a bug when you do a comp with multiple layers and you resize the canvas/work area. When you try to paint again on a layer, you are limited by the old area. The only thing you can do is to duplicate the layer and throw the old one.

-I think this is a bug in OS X only: I start painter, then I go to another app. I come back to Painter then all palettes and toolbar are hidden (it reapear with TAB key of course).

-the painter's clipboard doesn't seem to handle transparency

-A suggestion for custom palettes: ok you can add menu items but it shows like buttons in the palette. I'd like to have them in the custom palette's menu instead of buttons.

-I'd like something to reorder colors easily in the colors palette. For example shift+click on a color and drag it where you want.

SylvanMist

12-14-2005, 08:02 PM

Some other things I found:

-I'd like an option to deactivate mouse wheel zoom, at least when the cursor is not in the image.

So you mean you actually CAN zoom in/out with the mouse wheel? It only works for me if i have the cursor over the zoom slider at the bottom.

artshop

12-24-2005, 03:48 PM

I'd like the lasso tool to work accurately with small selections, like the tool in Photoshop and Painter 6. Painter 9 lasso breaks down and can't repeat the selection being drawn.

TheGameMaker

12-26-2005, 03:17 PM

some ideas by me: (im not sure if they have been postet before....)

1: A simple Brush like in PS.... with alpha between 0 and 100 but 50 is exact halv as transparent as 100. It allthough should only paint once a klick. Means: if u have a brush with alpha 50 and draw a Circle without lifting the pen, everywhere in the circle is the same color, even if parts has been paintet twice or so.... hope this is understandable, cause I´m German.

2: I sugest to better Layer-droping its really necessary...

3: Creating own shapes for Brushes Like in PS....

so, i hope that u guys make Painter perfect!

TGM

TseTse

12-26-2005, 11:54 PM

- a "dabs" library which would perhaps get more usage than nozzles, etc.

- rightclick option to show size/diameter SLIDER akin to PS (to me this is perhaps the single best improvement i can imagine)

- rightclick SLIDER to rotate canvas.

- for whatever reason, i have set my wacom secondary button to be "undo" yet it very often just doesnt work and instead seems to want to paint at that point. perhaps user error but if not, i'd like to see the issue resolved :D

- ability to change icons on custom palette brushes, perhaps reflecting the dabs as shown in the trackers rather than the generic group/media type icon

Philippec

12-28-2005, 04:33 PM

3: Creating own shapes for Brushes Like in PS....

I don't use PS, but isn't this the same as a Captured Dab? Just paint the shape you want on the canvas, select it and choose "Capture Dab" in the Brush Selector's flyout menu. Presto! Your own unique shape!

SylvanMist

12-28-2005, 05:33 PM

So you mean you actually CAN zoom in/out with the mouse wheel? It only works for me if i have the cursor over the zoom slider at the bottom.

Can someone please answer my question? I'm curious about it becuase i'ts a feature i'd really like. I'm using the evolent verticle mouse so maybe that is why it doesn't work for me. Unfortunetly I don't have another mouse right now to try it with.

marlouin

12-28-2005, 10:06 PM

@Roja
Yeah, it's working all over my screen. I'm using a logitech and macOS X.

I'd like the lasso tool to work accurately with small selections, like the tool in Photoshop and Painter 6. Painter 9 lasso breaks down and can't repeat the selection being drawn.
That's a good point.

JosephGoss

02-08-2006, 11:44 AM

a interface like photoshops, not fiddily and i hate the snap tollerenece of the windows in painter

and the painter interface feels chunky, i have photoshop CS2, and the interface in that appliaction is leaps and bounds better then painters, its like now one cares about useability, and its all about the features

in my opinion, painters interface really does destroy the experience, i just don't know why its so chunky (you know, fat and bulky)

Kaivoo

02-11-2006, 01:09 PM

- Transparency palettes background , And Auto Pop-Up. It can increase more work space . and good health for my eye.

- I 'm Intous3 user , set [ ,] hotkey for increase and decrease brushsize As a Left Touch-script. I need Opacity hotkeys for the Right Touch-script.

- A little Brush pressure sensitive paragraph . which i can change the pressure sensitive directly. (Property bar is a good place for it)

- a new blending tool.

Some Anime-style need a verysoft blending , But a blend tools in Painter have a little smudge effect . Which destroy its clean-style and its colour shapes.

The blending i say is very closely to BlUr tools in PTS . but more sensitive. Like put a water to melt a Water colour.

- Colours palette . which i can type a number of H , S , and V. Directly.

- I use an A4 (2480 x 3508) canvas size for my cg commercial work. But i recently use an 640x800 , or other sizes for my Homepage . And sometime, B5 for my Doujinshi.

I need a 'Saving Canvas Size' Ability.

EDIT:

- IF possible , Screen tone for Manga creator.

Sorry if my english seem strange.:beer:

mcarp

03-04-2006, 12:48 AM

One thing I find I use in Photoshop all the time that is not easily accomplished in Painter is turning the canvas into a layer.

If I could double-click the canvas and turn it into a layer, I'd use it all the time.

I would also like a 'duplicate layer' button on the layer palette.

Drevious

03-04-2006, 01:07 AM

...and plz, change this small view window in Adjust Color, because its totally useles, and for this one step, have to jump sometimes to PS. I think its not much to make such an upgrade...

- and, Painter like to change the selection of layer to canvas, when painting on a layer doing flip horizontal and after that going undo (Ctrl+Z) it backs to canvas for no reason. It cause that u dont know, when you just painted on a canvas instead of layer you want to paint. Hope i made it clear :)

furrykef

03-09-2006, 06:59 AM

I migrated from Painter 6 directly to Painter IX. As you may know, ctrl+shift+z is the shortcut for "redo" in most programs, including Adobe Photoshop. In Painter 6, pressing ctrl+shift+z instead of ctrl+y for "redo" did some weird auto-clone thing that took a little time and I didn't know how to cancel it. As you can imagine, I hit ctrl+shift+z by mistake a fair amount of the time and was always frustrated when this happened. I was relieved to see this no longer happened in Painter IX... and apparently they put this feature back in with Painter IX.5. Argh! I suppose they ought to keep the feature if they want it, but for God's sake, don't assign ctrl+shift+z to it!

Painter IX.5 seems to crash whenever I do something, too. I'm strongly considering uninstalling and reinstalling without the patch.

- Kef

Jinbrown

03-09-2006, 10:11 PM

Ctrl/Command+Shift+Z works in Painter 5, 6, 7, 8, and IX. It just doesn't work with all brush variants which may be why you thought it wasn't available in a pre-Painter IX version.

To stop the Auto-cloning effect, click in the image.

To Redo after using Undo, use Ctrl/Command+Y.

furrykef

03-09-2006, 10:50 PM

Yeah, I suspected it had been in Painter IX but just not with the brushes I happened to be using at the time. I suppose I should have thought about that before I posted. Still, I hate that problem.

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that the proper key sequence is ctrl+y. The problem is that ctrl+y is not what my fingers instinctively type, since almost everything else uses ctrl+shift+z. It's not really that ctrl+shift+z does the wrong operation so much as it does something that is inconvenient for it to happen accidentally (especially when you don't know what's going on and how to stop it). Having a common key sequence like that do something "bad" is not good design. Thanks for the "click on the image" tip, though.

- Kef

heythatreallyhurts

03-14-2006, 09:22 PM

I've been using Painter IX (IX.5 recently) to ink pencil sketches, and I've run into some problems with the way "align to path" works. I love being able to create straight edges and curves on the fly, but the entire process is a little clunky. I don't like having to stroke a shape in order to see it while working on a different layer; in fact, I don't like having shapes as their own layers at all. I wish I could make multiple shapes (paths) on my inking layer, and then select each path individually as I go over it with a stroke. Also, I played around with the tolerance settings a little, and as far as I can tell all that does is to determine how far your cursor can stray away from the path. I had hoped to be able to tweak exactly how closely my stroke would align to a path. I still prefer inking on a path over using the straight line tool, but only because I can control the thickness/opacity with pressure. I would like a way of following a path in sort of an organic way, without having to eyeball it and Ctrl+Z a hundred times before I get a decent line out of it.

aadams

03-14-2006, 09:43 PM

painter is great!

the next version needs to focus less on paint tools...which ROCK

and more on compostion tools

like:

the perspective tool

I like it...but I would LOVE it if

1) I could have more than two planes...and the ability to control the spacing individually of them all...
2) multiple vanishing points
3) option for diagonals and or ellipses on the perspective grid
4) option to snap to perspective grid
5) stroke perspective grid to layer
6) stroke perspective grid to shape

CarlCampbell

03-15-2006, 03:14 PM

For the love of Jebus...! WHY o why don't the just add transparency support for animations, pleeeaaase!

:cry:

crossbones

03-21-2006, 01:01 PM

I wonder why corel doesn't seem to want to make changes to painter that any of us suggest. Like keyboard short cuts to toggle favorite brushes one has. I would also like to see a prisma color pencil varient.

crossbones

03-21-2006, 01:07 PM

I have another simplified feature for painter that would make photoshop obselete. How about a multi- painting session-over-ip , very similar to opencanvas's network feature where up to 4 artists could paint on the same canvas at once.

Jinbrown

03-21-2006, 05:34 PM

Fractal Design, Metacreations, and Corel, all three of Painter's owners have listened to us and incorporated features and improvements in each version, based on our requests.

They can only include what development time allows and what enough Painter users want, in order to make that development time well spent. If only a handful users, relative to the entire Painter user base, ask for something that's not critical, it's not likely to be on the high priority list, I would think.

Through several Painter versions, at least back to Painter 4.0, possibly earlier, and through Painter 7, a feature called Net Painter was included. Using Net Painter, we could connect to a pre-determined participant's IP number and do online collaborative painting sessions.

All on the same Canvas, taking turns painting.

In the Objects palette's Net Painter section, we could see who was logged in and know when it was time for the painting session to begin. There were three lights that went on and off, yellow for participants waiting to have their turn, green when it was their turn to paint, and red when they stopped painting and turned Canvas access over to the next participant. There was even a small chat window so we could agree on the theme, ask questions, make comments, decide when to save the painting, and decide when to end the painting session. When we agreed to save the image, it was automatically saved to a special folder on each participant's hard drive.

I live in California and for several months one year, I met in online collaborative painting sessions with high school students in Ohio a couple of times a week. We usually painted for an hour or so with three to five students participating though there could have been more if we'd had more time for everyone to take a few turns painting. Their instructor and I painted after school closed sometimes and had a marvelous time.

The down side was that getting connected was sometimes a problem and staying connected was also sometimes tricky.

When the connection worked, it was great and everyone had a good time. The students loved it and so did I.

I had a whole multi page section on my PixelAlley site dedicated to Net Painter where, with student's, parent's, and instructor's permission, I displayed the work we did during our online painting sessions. When we stopped our online painting sessions, I took down that section and only have a couple of pages left that explain Net Painter:

Unfortunately, Net Painter didn't draw enough interest from the Painter user base so with Painter 8 it was dropped.

I have a lot of fond memories of those times we painted together across the miles. It was amazing at the time, to watch brushstrokes appear on my screen that were painted by someone thousands of miles away. You'll notice those Net Painter pages at PixelAlley are dated September, 2000 and that was after we'd been using Net Painter for a while. Painter 4.0, the oldest version I own was released in 1995, so Net Painter is at least that old and maybe older.

Guess I should add links to those pages in the PixelAlley Painter's History section now. ;)

furrykef

03-22-2006, 03:00 AM

Here's an idea for them: keep downloads of previous Painter versions where people can find them. I uninstalled IX.5 today because it just won't stop crashing, even after reinstallation, and I can't find a place to download 9.0 or 9.1.

No, that's a patch. That would only work if you already had 9.0 installed.

Haiku

03-25-2006, 03:47 PM

I wonder why corel doesn't seem to want to make changes to painter that any of us suggest. Like keyboard short cuts to toggle favorite brushes one has. I would also like to see a prisma color pencil varient.

Agreed! I allways thought that should be intergrated with painter. I would love to make short cuts for custom brushes

f97ao

04-09-2006, 07:48 PM

I have a problem with my rif files. Every time I open them all of may layers are open, even though some should be hidden. Is this a general bug?

/Andreas

furrykef

04-09-2006, 07:50 PM

I'm guessing it's either that or a misfeature.

jmBoekestein

05-07-2006, 06:36 PM

I have a problem with filter previews like equalise and brightness and contrast. Only when everything is selected will it properly preview the effect. I'm getting fairly annoyed at times since it requires too much cpu power and memory to do this on large canvases(selecting everything).
I'd also like to see the resizing fixed on the eraser, they look like small enough issues.

Theonly problem I can really think of besides is that brushes behave very unpredictably at very low resaturation settings, suddenly a plethora of hues is employed to colour something. Makes it hard to get subtle.

Great program though! :)

tomasC

05-13-2006, 11:21 AM

woow.. saint corel:bowdown: :bowdown: . .my first wishes..

1. technical opacity like in photoshop(layer opacity in all of type brushes..)..

similarly as digital watercolor ..abrasive

2. shortcut to the brush preset(all manual)( similarly as in cinema 4d

example:brush\erasers\flat darkener10 ,shortcut F+D(F^D)

3. Rake to the all of type brushes.
4.fresh* layers (like in ps..and more!!!):thumbsup:
best,

TomasHC

RafalH

05-13-2006, 08:57 PM

Here's my short wishlist:

1. ability to group and collapse layers of different type (overlay+default for instance)

2. second live view of the image, like photoshop has (one for zoomed out "preview" and other you could work on id zoomed in state)

3. the palettes scroll bar on the right is always visible, whether you can scroll or not (window has reached maximal size) - this is a waste of space.

4. ability to customize the toolbox palette - add/remove elements, and have it's size customizable (I'd like to be able at least to make it horizontal instead of the vertical narrow size it is now).

5. adjustable color set palette size (I'd like to make it way smaller then the allowed minimum now)

6. ability to customize size/orientation of properties palette.

tomasC

06-12-2006, 11:21 PM

...and real realistic soft brush..gradient brush!!!on layer:opacity..

tomasC

06-20-2006, 07:50 PM

bevel world* (shape) on dub type:rendered:thumbsup:

edit : ou sh't ..this is work, on rendered..:buttrock:

tomasC

06-21-2006, 10:32 AM

please:bounce: .. corrections on ..dab type : Renederd on Digital WEt.. and rest of that thing options....plug-ins..this is very good thing..(fix crash!!!)

tomasC

06-21-2006, 10:32 AM

cut this adm..:shrug:

rattsang

07-09-2006, 01:00 PM

dunno about anyone else but i think its the most annoying thing when i switch from pencil to watercolour and then i have to change the brush tracking cause nothing comes up with out extreme pressure- in short ability to set brush tracking separately for each brush :)

switch to HSB using the little triangle/arrow of the color info palette's menu...

:)

EDIT: But I'd just love if the damn palette remembered that I dont care for RGB values so I would not have to switch it every time I fire up PainterIX....:rolleyes:

tomasC

07-31-2006, 09:48 AM

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9160/layerlw1.jpg

..........layer paint. but in all of brush category.
.......... changes of the size *one hair in the brush(flat,camel*,ect*,palette too:bounce: )
..........Realistic drip(new brush method,RealDrip)

rpsmith

08-01-2006, 01:56 AM

With the speed of Machines today why can't they have a workable C, M, Y, K Picker. Even if it takes the values that you pick as C, M, Y, K and converts them to R,G,B...It is just slightly flustering sometime when you are looking for a particular color.

The fix that I have is to you Illustrator CS and pick my C, M, Y, K color then convert it to
R, G, B. It gets it pretty close. So when you are ready to print I am happy with the results.

But it would be nice if i didn't have to do that manually.

furrykef

08-09-2006, 11:26 PM

I still think CTRL+SHIFT+Z should be another alias for "redo" rather than auto-clone. It's the standard "redo" key sequence in almost every other program I use, and I find it very frustrating when I end up with an auto-clone thing happening when I do it by mistake, especially since I don't remember how to cancel it (ESC, spacebar, and enter don't do the trick) (EDIT: you're supposed to click on the image). Then when it stops, I'm still screwed because, although I can undo that, now it's impossible to redo what I wanted (since redo would now redo the auto-clone).

Yes, this is a case of user error and I'm supposed to hit CTRL+Y, but the error is caused by a "candy-machine interface" issue. In the book "Writing Solid Code", Steve Maguire talks about a candy machine at Microsoft (go figure) where you punched in numbers rather than letters to identify the product you wanted. What some people would sometimes do by mistake is put in, say, 25 cents, then punch '2' and '5' on the keypad because they haven't purged the price from their mind, and they end up with the wrong product. If instead the keypad had used letters, they would see that they could not enter '25', realize their error, and punch in the correct sequence. The problem with the machine is that the interface does little to prevent a mistake, so such a mistake will occasionally happen. Such interfaces are best avoided. In this case, it would be easy to just change the CTRL+SHIFT+Z shortcut into "redo" and use a different sequence for auto-clone, or drop the idea of a shortcut key for it altogether (does it really need one? I don't know).

Am I the only person who finds the CTRL+SHIFT+Z issue to be problematic?

- Kef

catnip

08-09-2006, 11:53 PM

I've got two wishes:

1. Have the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons in the correct order for Windows users. Right now, it's reversed (like on the Mac), and I keep hitting the wrong button. It's probably because Painter originated on the Mac and it's ported over from the Mac, but Painter's the only program I use that has this problem.

2. I really appreciate Corel adding alpha channels for Targa files in IX. So, now I'd like to have .PNG support (with alpha channel, of course). Pretty please? :love:

Jinbrown

08-10-2006, 02:35 AM

I still think CTRL+SHIFT+Z should be another alias for "redo" rather than auto-clone. It's the standard "redo" key sequence in almost every other program I use, and I find it very frustrating when I end up with an auto-clone thing happening when I do it by mistake, especially since I don't remember how to cancel it (ESC, spacebar, and enter don't do the trick) (EDIT: you're supposed to click on the image). Then when it stops, I'm still screwed because, although I can undo that, now it's impossible to redo what I wanted (since redo would now redo the auto-clone).

Yes, this is a case of user error and I'm supposed to hit CTRL+Y, but the error is caused by a "candy-machine interface" issue. In the book "Writing Solid Code", Steve Maguire talks about a candy machine at Microsoft (go figure) where you punched in numbers rather than letters to identify the product you wanted. What some people would sometimes do by mistake is put in, say, 25 cents, then punch '2' and '5' on the keypad because they haven't purged the price from their mind, and they end up with the wrong product. If instead the keypad had used letters, they would see that they could not enter '25', realize their error, and punch in the correct sequence. The problem with the machine is that the interface does little to prevent a mistake, so such a mistake will occasionally happen. Such interfaces are best avoided.

In this case, it would be easy to just change the CTRL+SHIFT+Z shortcut into "redo" and use a different sequence for auto-clone, ....

Yes, it would be easy and you can do it yourself in:

Mac - Painter IX > Preferences > Customize Keys

Windows - Edit > Preferences > Customize Keys

.... or drop the idea of a shortcut key for it altogether (does it really need one? I don't know).

A lot of people use Ctrl/Command+Shift+Z to "auto clone" as it's both faster than reaching for the menu command and it can sometimes work when the Effects > Esoterica > Auto Clone command won't work.

Among many others, one of its uses is to begin the process of painting an interesting background. Another is to create a more interesting Paper. I've used it for both and, in addition, as part of the process to create Patterns.

Am I the only person who finds the CTRL+SHIFT+Z issue to be problematic?

- Kef

I doubt you're the only person, but since there's an easy solution, it doesn't need to even be an issue, let alone problematic.

furrykef

08-10-2006, 03:08 AM

Yes, it would be easy and you can do it yourself in:

Mac - Painter IX > Preferences > Customize Keys

Windows - Edit > Preferences > Customize Keys

You didn't say that when I brought it up before... thanks though, that works. :)

- Kef

Jinbrown

08-11-2006, 03:50 AM

Kef,

Well I guess you're lucky I said it this time. ;)

I'm not paid to answer questions like some of the experts you see here are (paid by Corel), and any time I give to help other Painter users is entirely voluntary.

And, it's up to Painter users to read the documentation if they want to know how to use the program, then ask questions when they either don't know how to find the answers in Help Topics or don't understand them.

Customize Keys Preferences is explained in one of the first chapters in Painter IX Help > Help Topics:

Take time to become familiar with what Painter IX Help Topics contains and a lot of your frustrations will be eliminated. At the very least, you'll learn what's available for you to use.

Docmanic

08-19-2006, 08:26 AM

1) How about an option to draw lines from perspective points that are off the screen? With snapping behavior such that you could start drawing at a point on screen and the line just runs straight from wherever you start drawing away or toward the perspective point?
2) I would love the option to make the color picker quite a bit bigger to make subtle adjustments easier.
3) Any chance of support for photoshop adjustment layers in the photoshop files?

Shizumauru

10-02-2006, 01:21 PM

I have a lot of wishes/proposals, (sorry of something was already mentioned before):

1) Hotkeys for different Brush Variants/Brush Types.
That could improve the working speed alot when you often change brush types.

2) Grouping of Layers could be better, I would prefer a folder-like architecture where you can create "sub" groups which can be collapsed. (Like in PS)

3) A ruler tool to quickly measure distances in px.

4) "Tool Tip" - like labels for the color palettes.
So you could use the maximum space to display as many colors as possible but when moving the cursor over it you see the description.

5) Capabitity to use the /3GB switch in 32bit OS, to allocate up to 3GB RAM to the Painter process. Or, at least, be able to use the full 2GB that Windows provides.
Currently it seems like the Painter process cannot allocate more than ~1280MB of RAM, even if there's a lot more available.

6) .psd file support. Sometimes, when using a specific Layer type and save as .psd, layer type is different when the file is reopened. Alternatively, why is there no support for Corel's own .psd file format? (Photo Paint)

7) Zoom behaviour is strange when using the slider.
It's nearly impossible to change from let's say 50% to exactly 100% by using the slider. I always get 99,somewhat %, or something right above 100%. This was working well in Painter 8, if I remember right.

furrykef

10-02-2006, 06:53 PM

I've got one... how about making PREVIEW.PIX files easy to delete? I don't know why, but I can't delete them. (I'm using Painter IX.5 for Windows.) It says that some other process is using the file, but I can't find any obvious offending process. Even using a tool showing the location from which every process is running, I can't see any running processes connected to Painter... and yet I still can't delete my PREVIEW.PIX files! It doesn't matter if the file is old or new, or if my computer's been running or if it just started up; I can't do it. Oh, I'm sure there's a way to do it -- and I'd appreciate knowing that way (I've already searched the web and the forums to no avail) -- but you shouldn't have to jump through a hoop to delete such a file, especially such an unimportant one.

Or is this some sort of problem that only I am experiencing?

- Kef

Jinbrown

10-02-2006, 07:59 PM

If you delete the PREVIEW.PIX file in a given folder, there won't be thumbnails to display in the Open dialog for RIFF files previously saved to that folder.

Also, when you save the next RIFF file to that folder, a new PREVIEW.PIX file will be automatically created to contain a thumbnail for the new RIFF file and any RIFF files you save to that folder later (of course only until you delete that PREVIEW.PIX file and the cycle begins all over again).

furrykef

10-02-2006, 08:31 PM

If you delete the PREVIEW.PIX file in a given folder, there won't be thumbnails to display in the Open dialog for RIFF files previously saved to that folder.

Also, when you save the next RIFF file to that folder, a new PREVIEW.PIX file will be automatically created to contain a thumbnail for the new RIFF file and any RIFF files you save to that folder later (of course only until you delete that PREVIEW.PIX file and the cycle begins all over again).

I know. But sometimes you don't need a PREVIEW.PIX file anymore. For example, one time I saved a file directly from Painter into a folder on my hard drive that is part of the local copy of my website, and it created a PREVIEW.PIX file (which I don't need). When I run my upload script, the PREVIEW.PIX file gets uploaded to my website. If I delete it from the website but keep it on the hard drive, the PREVIEW.PIX file will just get uploaded again; the proper way to do it is to delete it from my hard drive, but I can't.

I don't think "You shouldn't delete them" is a good reason for this behavior.

- Kef

Jinbrown

10-02-2006, 09:18 PM

Hi,

I don't know why you can't delete the PREVIEW.PIX file.

Just tested it in WinXP Home SP2 and I was able to delete the file using three methods, all with Painter IX.5 running and the just saved TIFF image open in Painter IX.5:

1. Used File Save > As a second time after saving the file, right-clicked the PREVIEW.PIX file and chose Delete, then clicked OK when asked if I really wanted to delete it.

2. Used File Save > As again after saving the file, highlighted the PREVIEW.PIX file and clicked the Delete key, then clicked OK when asked if I really wanted to delete it.

3. In Windows Explorer, highlighted the file and hit the Delete key, then clicked OK when asked if I really wanted to delete it.

Tested again the same way with a JPG file and it worked as expected. I was able to delete the PREVIEW.PIX file each time.

I have had your problem with other files and don't recall the circumstances except that I had to close any and all programs I'd been using the file in before the file could be deleted.

Hope this helps.

phd

11-30-2006, 10:54 AM

(taken from http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3974040&postcount=16)

What would be useful is if the shift key constrained direction worked relative to the screen and not the paper, ie when rotating the paper, make horizontal relative to the screen, therefore straight lines of any angle could be achieved. Currently the straight lines are relative to the page, and so on rotated page the shift key constrains to the angle of the page, and when the page is straightened out a horizontal line is drawn.

May be this could be an additional option in the next Painter upgrade.

Regards,

Phd.

Taltos

11-30-2006, 01:33 PM

even more useful would be the described behaviour, but when drawing ellipses...it would make it way easier to draw circles in perspective that way :thumbsup:

dunno if that has been mentioned yet, but photoshop's way of making gradients (click&drag for direction and length) is imo way superior to painter's, and should be relatively easy to implement while allowing for big workflow improvements.

phd

11-30-2006, 01:46 PM

What would be good for drawing ellipses in perspective, would be to draw a straight line from one point to the another, to represent the minor axis diameter, then a third click to specify the major axis diameter (or half diameter). This would allow drawing circles on perspective grid lines.

Regards,

Phd.

remcv8

12-07-2006, 02:05 PM

I know this is for the IX patch and I hope it also pertains to IX.5 patch as well.

I noticed that in IX and IX.5 (while zoomed in to your work) when you hold the spacebar to navigate around your work white lines, both verticle and horizontal white lines appear from where the edges had been hidden. They're just a display issue and don't really affect your image, but is annoying. If you hold the spacebar and move your work in a circular motion, they go away.

Anyone noticed that?

furrykef

12-10-2006, 07:16 AM

About the PREVIEW.PIX problem I was having a couple of posts above... today I finally figured out the solution. It turns out that the problem didn't have to do with Painter at all. It was another program, Konvertor, which was somehow interfering. I don't know why, since it didn't interfere with anything else. Ah well... there's one mystery solved. Sorry for having implicated Painter in this crime. ;)

- Kef

kookookrayzy

12-14-2006, 02:41 AM

(sorry if anyone mentioned these already):
- fix the Onion Skin of animations so that the current frame is shown at full opacity and previous frames appear ghosted

- someone said this earlier, but it would be great to have some of the layer blend modes also apply to brushes; i.e. multiply mode, dodge, burn, etc; I know Buildup is sort of like multiply, but it reaches black too fast.

- some brushes take forever to calculate and resize, it totally ruins the flow when I'm working quickly.

Also, Universal Binary for OSX please!
thanks!
-kook

flyingP

12-31-2006, 02:38 PM

i'd also like to see the felt pens eased off a bit in their buildup speed, i find most of the time if i ever use them i've having to use very very faint colors for them to work or be useable.

i would also like to see some form of delaying dryout/buildup of certain brushes. i.e. lets take felt pens as an example. normally with designer markers if you do a fairly fast side to side stroke to fill in an area it will result in a pretty flat area, because the solvent helps diffuse the buildup some and stops more ink coming onto the paper from the nib. if you are slower you end up with more streaks/more buildup going on. it would be nice to have some way of emulating this... paper -ink/pigment/water saturation value. i.e. the paper can't accept any more ink till what's in there has dried.

would die for that personally

evanfotis

12-31-2006, 04:34 PM

1) Hotkeys for different Brush Variants/Brush Types.
That could improve the working speed alot when you often change brush types.

2) Grouping of Layers could be better, I would prefer a folder-like architecture where you can create "sub" groups which can be collapsed. (Like in PS)

I will second these, especially the hotkeys thing.
It is easy to get lost sarching for your fav brush variant, even if one creates a custom palette.
Hotkeys is a must for brushtypes. Heck even the eraser doesnt have one like in PS...

Another section, which I think I've mentioned before, is about Scripts.
Such a usefull feature for animating drawings, where so little work has gone into since the very beggining (v4 or so). A shame.
The animate options should become more accurate, not just "every __/ 10ths of a second" as is now, which isn't even that.
I can have the same script session on a fast PC render only 40-50 frames (unusable) where on an old PC will generate 300-400 frames...
So it is not time accurate, but inverted to the power of the PC...
Also, make the creation of framestacks more reliable. Many times, it offsets the image halfway down and right as if one applied the offset filter in PS, making all the procedure useless.
Make script editing much easier.
Being able to locate a specific line by highlighting it as it plays back-like PS actions palette does.
Also being able to open two scripts side by side and copy/paste, and not in note pad which is the only way up2now.
Finally, being able to give more length to the scripts palette as they did with layers palette.,
The palette expands now, but an open script is only visible for the 8 first lines, no matter if the palette is expanded to all the monitors height...
Enough for now.

workbench

03-06-2007, 08:07 PM

I also have a few suggestions:

-Normal zoom levels, 25%, 50%,100 not 26.7%, 56.7%... When I open an image it auto zoom outs to 66.66% or other strange numbers and the zoom keeps the same ratio unless you full view it.

-Anti-aliasing zoom out like Photoshop.

-Ability to save a full brush folder to a BRS library, much easier to share brushes this way since you don't have to drop the brushes in a far out directory on the HDD or ZIP/RAR them.

-More cursors to pick from.

-A new brush category that uses the same transparency build up of Photoshop pencil tool for example, a bit like how markers actually work.

-Custom pressure adjustments for each brush. Very important to me, like opencanvas does, it saves time and patience not having to go the brush tracking every time you want to adjust the pressure scale for a particular brush.

-Enough with the click to activate sliders, why not trim down some of the borders of the windows and add normal sliders?

-Build-up method needs major work, it goes black way too fast.

-Small color wheel with the hue bar horizontally.

-An interface that is more easy to use and browse.

phd

05-01-2007, 09:06 AM

Something I would like to see, that I'm suprised that others have not requested, is :

When scaling or rotating a selection instant feedback/preview as to the final selection size or rotation position, before finally committing the change. Currently all you see is the bounding box of the selection, with it's handles. Eg. if you need to cut part of an image and adjust it's rotation to line up with another part of the image, it's complete trial and error in trying to get the exact angle to rotate. Equally when scaling, if you need to scale some part in order to fit in with another part of the image, it all comes down to trial and error. Most, if not all, other applications provide some sort of feedback while the tools are active, and only calculate the accurate transformation when committing to the action.

Regards,

Phd.

evanfotis

05-01-2007, 09:40 AM

Something I would like to see, that I'm suprised that others have not requested, is :

When scaling or rotating a selection instant feedback/preview as to the final selection size or rotation position, before finally committing the change. Currently all you see is the bounding box of the selection, with it's handles
this must have been one of the first requests pple had. Tranforming ala photoshop et al style. It seems we have to learn to live with some things, just as PS users still lack the rotating canvas...
And althouh Painter has evolved over the years, its core function is still a Painting/drawing application whereas PS is an image editor manipulator.

PicNica

05-06-2007, 07:06 PM

heres a little something that bugs me:
the reasons may be a little esoteric, but this feature should be no problem to add.

The SHORT version:

Plz give us the option to make "rotate page" a momentary button, so that it switches back to the last used tool, when releasing the hotkey. (just like the hand tool)

OR

Let the hotkey work like an "On/Off" switch so that it switches back to the last used tool when pressing the hotkey again.

The LONG version:

there are a few functions that are a "must bind to tablet" to have a quick workflow. such as
resize brush, color picker, zoom, scroll around canvas and rotate canvas.*
This way its comfortable to tab to fullscreen mode with everything invisible but the canvas and still having all needed controls.
So i need 5 controls that i wanna acces without having to take my eyes off the screen or click in the toolbox.

sounds perfect because the wacom tablet has 4 keys + touch strip.
(i count only the one side of the tablet because the other hand is occupied by the pen, and the remaining keys are unconfortable to reach).

the problem is, that when i use the rotate tool, i need another hotkey to get back to the brush. so i have waste one precious tablet key for the brush tool which i use 99,9% of the time.

*)UNDO and the brush selector menu are another two vital things, but i've mapped them to the pen

evanfotis

05-06-2007, 09:06 PM

Plz give us the option to make "rotate page" a momentary button, so that it switches back to the last used tool, when releasing the hotkey. (just like the hand tool)

Does the spacebar+alt not work for you?
Functional on Intuos 3 xpress keys too.
Dunno if u can also assign a custom shortcut through the prefs.
But even hitting E and then B is ok. Better than PS..

flyingP

05-07-2007, 08:58 AM

the problem is, that when i use the rotate tool, i need another hotkey to get back to the brush. so i have waste one precious tablet key for the brush tool which i use 99,9% of the time.

funny, works fine for me in 9.5, which is to say I have it mapped to a key on my cintiq and it does switch back to the last tool when released

When scaling or rotating a selection instant feedback/preview as to the final selection size or rotation position, before finally committing the change. Currently all you see is the bounding box of the selection, with it's handles. Eg. if you need to cut part of an image and adjust it's rotation to line up with another part of the image, it's complete trial and error in trying to get the exact angle to rotate. Equally when scaling, if you need to scale some part in order to fit in with another part of the image, it all comes down to trial and error. Most, if not all, other applications provide some sort of feedback while the tools are active, and only calculate the accurate transformation when committing to the action.

yeah would personally appreciate that too

phd

05-08-2007, 09:53 AM

heres a little something that bugs me:
the reasons may be a little esoteric, but this feature should be no problem to add.

The SHORT version:

Plz give us the option to make "rotate page" a momentary button, so that it switches back to the last used tool, when releasing the hotkey. (just like the hand tool)

...

Hi,
I have my Wacom Intuos 3 set up as follows -

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=4199380&postcount=3

using the "ALT" key and the "SPACE" key combined (on the tablet), then using the pen to drag and rotate the page, release the Pen and then the buttons, restores the tool back to the whatever was selected before rotating.

PicNica

05-09-2007, 10:36 AM

haha i cant believed i didnt knew about space+alt.

anyway thx alot guys u just saved my day :D

Lunatique

06-25-2007, 07:59 PM

I've changed the title of this thread, so it's not just for upcoming patches, but features/tools/bug-fixes you'd like to see in Painter in general.

genocell

07-06-2007, 02:42 PM

..............

Jinbrown

07-07-2007, 08:11 AM

Hi genocell,

In response to part of your item # 4:

In Painter 8.1, Painter IX.5, and Painter X.1 we can change the Mixer Pad background color:

Mixer palette menu > Change Mixer Background...

I don't remember if we could do this in Painter 8, before the Painter 8.1 patch/Update was installed, but would expect we could, and could also with Painter IX and Painter X before the patches/Updates were installed.

In your item # 6:

By "scroll bars", to you mean sliders used to set values in the Color Info palette and in other areas of Corel Painter?

Your item # 7:

Thanks for sharing your method for controlling the Tracker palette behavior. I'll have to try that.

While I agree, and many others also agree, that we need a better way to identify the brush variant when we've dragged the brush category icon into a Custom Palette, there is a way to do it while we wait for an improvement: Enable Tool Tips (Help > Show Tool Tips), then hold your cursor very still over the brush category icon and the name of the brush variant current when the brush category icon was added to the Custom Palette is displayed.

Overall, good suggestions, presented in an intelligent, clear, and positive manner.

Thanks again

genocell

07-07-2007, 09:48 AM

Thank you very much for replying, Jin.

About the palette background color, thank you. I thought I had Painter all figured out. That option was there all the time when I used the save mixer pad option and I didn't see it! :P
Also I forgot to mention that I use Painter IX.5.

About the scroll bars, (item #6) it's this:

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/9409/colorinfoss5.jpg

I just mention it there because I have read some other users' suggestions to replace it with Photoshop's interface. I'm not sure how many people use it but I'm one of the users that use it a lot with my AutoIt/AutoHotkey rig. Not much of an importance but just in case...

For item (item #7)
Well thank you. I don't know if anyone else use this same method but I like to use it because I can call it up anytime I like by pressing the "\" key to bring up the tracker in the middle of the painting, select a brush and hide it again (ala Open Canvas). I don't want to use the custom palette as it will clutter my workspace and I don't know which icon stands for which brush. Also the brush settings stay locked all the time.

About your suggestions of using Help > Show Tool Tips with the custom palette I tried that before but it kinda hurts my shoulder a bit. ;)

Thank you for replying.:)

Lunatique

07-07-2007, 07:17 PM

I'm going to mention a few of very important ones that has caused me to use mostly only Photoshop in the last couple of years. They are probably not easy to fix, or else Corel should've gotten them by now. I hope Corel figures out a way to fix these problems, or else my use of Painter will remain limited down the road.

1) Transparent piexels are treated as white color when using any brush that does blending. This one is a deal breaker for me these days.

When I was working on the styleguides for Spiderman 3 and Surf's Up for Sony Pictures (you can see them in my CG Portfolio now), I was asked to keep everything on separate layers (as any commercial client would ask, because it's the smart thing to do when changes need to be made later)--cast shadows, form shadows..etc are espcially important to be kept on separate layers. With shadows painted on multiply or gel layers, it's not a problem as all pixels are treated as transparent in those layer types, but when I have for example a normal layer of let's say Cody's (the main penguine character from Surf's Up) or Joe's (the chicken character from Surf's Up) arm or other body parts that needs to be on a separate layer, and since they are animals with feathers, I'd need to do lots blending of the outer edges of those body parts, it becomes a HUGE problem. The transparent pixels that gets touched by the blending brushes would turn white and my separate layer is now useless. I can't go back and erase the white pixels either, as they are actually blended in with some of the colors on the edge of the feathers.

2) When working on a normal layer and checking the "pick up color underneath" box, some brushes will cause black artifacts to appear as you paint on transparent pixels of that layer.

3) The image manipulation/editing tools aren't as powerful or robust as Photoshop. I think one of the reasons why we love working digitally is because there is so much power to wield when it comes to making changes that never would've been possible when working traditionally, and as much as I enjoy drawing/painting in Painter, I really need the robust editing tools so I can change/fix things quickly as I work. Even duing the early stages of sketching out the composition, I'd often need to use the transform tool to change the proportions of specific areas, and Photoshop's transform tool is just so much more intuitive and powerful. This is a shame because Painter's drawing tools are far superior to Photoshop's--the line quality, the choices of pencils/pens...etc. But in the end I'd have to sacrifice all of that because it's just faster and more powerful to use Photoshop for sketching because of the robust image editing features I need during the conceptual stage. This is particularly important when it comes to doing concept work where you are copying segments to another layer, transforming in whichever way, tweaking contrast, colors..etc in ways that require advanced control and fast/efficient visual feedback. Even a tool like Liquify in Photoshop is life-saver because it can often take care of problems that otherwise would require massive repaints, and it can do things that the transform tool just can't.

These problems completely break my workflow in Painter and I'd curse up a storm and remember why I had gone back to Photoshop more and more for the last couple of years. I still love Painter's brushes--there's no comparison to the kind of satisfaction I get when I work with my own custom brushes in Painter, and the wet-on-wet capability keeps me coming back to Painter time and time to paint specific areas that need the special brushwork. But even for my personal work where I don't need to keep everything on separate layers, it's starting to become an issue too. Sometimes I want to use specific brushes to paint the hair, and there is always some kind of blending involved when painting silky hair. I always want to keep hair on another layer because I might want to make changes later, and I'd hate to have to erase part of the face along with the hair strands. But due to the problem mentioned above (transparent pixels treated as white), I simply can't get what I want as I'd end up with those horrible white smudges all around the areas I'm trying to blend. I can't just check the "Pick up color underneath" box either, because let's say a strand of hair goes over an eye--if I tried to blend that strand, I'd screw up the eye underneath.

I've been a supporter of Painter for a while now and recently people are starting to notice that practically all of my newer works are all done in Photoshop, and they are emailing me to ask why I stopped using Painter. It makes me sad to have to tell them why, because I really do believe these issues can be taken care of if they ranked higher on Corel's priority list (this is only my assumption), but I don't know whether they are tricky issues that requires complete rewrite of a lot of codes, or Corel is simply concentrating on different priorities. If there are ways to work around these problems, I'd love to know about them, but for something as simple as wanting to blend hair on another layer without the white pixels showing up or smudging the face underneath, I'm absolutely frustrated I can't do something that simple. Photoshop sucks when it comes to doing silky hair blendings, so I really need to figure something out soon.

genocell

07-08-2007, 01:04 AM

I

1) Transparent piexels are treated as white color when using any brush that does blending. This one is a deal breaker for me these days...

2) When working on a normal layer and checking the "pick up color underneath" box, some brushes will cause black artifacts to appear as you paint on transparent pixels of that layer...

3) The image manipulation/editing tools aren't as powerful or robust as Photoshop...

Lunatique, you are absoultely 100% right. I think these are the most severe problems that I have to face with using Painter. Most of the time dealing with problem #1 and #2 makes me really frustrated when I think I can't use layers AT ALL to separate hairs and I have to manually erase or retouch the areas around hair strands. It is really frustrating and time consuming to say the least.

Problem #3 is by far one of my pet peeves of using Painter. Of course you can always fireup PhotoShop for a workaround, but it really breaks your workflow and mood. I can't waste my time to boot up PS to make a very small change to an object properties and using Painter's effect -> orientation tools ALWAYS makes me think "Photoshop is way better at doing this" or "I'm wasting my time". It's just the truth.

I think these problems you mentioned ranked the highest in the "things need to be changed in Painter" and Corel needs to address these problems if they were to retain their user base.

d@ve

07-28-2007, 12:37 AM

I would love to have a way to easily access previously used text settings. Say I used Arial, Bold, 9 point, black, centered often. It would be nice if Painter would either remember these settings when working on a new file, or have some kind of a "favorites" list that you could quickly choose from.

As it is now, each time I open a new file, I have to trudge through the default text settings to configure them to be the same as a file I closed seconds before.

furrykef

08-15-2007, 02:14 AM

Here's a very simple one: allow me to lock the canvas. I like to pencil my drawings on their own layer, not on the canvas, in case I want to put my coloring on a layer under the pencils or something like that. But it's easy to forget sometimes and start drawing on the canvas... it seems silly and arbitrary that the canvas cannot be locked. And if you do start drawing on the canvas, it isn't necessarily easy to select it and put it on its own layer...

(EDIT: Sorry, I live under a rock and didn't know Painter X is out. So ignore this post if Painter X already addressed this problem...)

- Kef

Guardstone

08-29-2007, 02:10 PM

The one thing I've been craving for in Painter is the option of a larger colour palette. The 'rainbow ring' I can work with just fine, but the triangle in the middle is so small, it's very hard to select colours that are neighbours to the one you have selected. If you want to move the little selection ring just one or two pixels, forget about it, once you click it, you're instantly several pixels from your original colour. I would definately prefer one that is the size of the one in Photoshop, the full 256 pixel range.
Clearly, the colour palette dates from Painter 1.0, when people were thrilled about working at 800x600 resolution displays, but these days we're working at 1600x1200 and up. It's time for an upgrade there!

Thanks,
Jolle

genocell

10-20-2007, 11:15 PM

The one thing I've been craving for in Painter is the option of a larger colour palette.....

Thanks,
Jolle

Hi. I too have a problem with this and I certainly would like Corel to make a bigger triangle.

What I do is I only use the triangle as a rough color selection since there's no way you can be precise with it, and then use the HSV color info slider on the Color info palette to fine tune the color selection.

Now you might say that the slider is too short for any precise movement down to one value of increments. There is a way to resize it as long as the lenght of your monitor! This way you can precisely slide the HSV sliders and the HSV values don't move too fast.

What you do is you take the layers palette, resize it the length you want the HSV slider to be (the color info palette) dock the color info palette (HSV sliders) on to the layers palette and undock it. Now you got yourself an extra long HSV slider that you can precisely choose your color after you have roughly chosen it from the color triangle.

I don't think they are going to do any major UI change in the near future so this is the least
you can do. But you'll get used to selecting colors this way in no time. :)

SquirrelEmperor

10-23-2007, 09:14 PM

Not sure if it has been said or if it's even in painter but...

I think their should be a perspective tool. What it would do is automatically set up your perspective lines for you. 1 point, 2 point, and 3 point. You could set where ever you want the horizon line and vanishing point to be and set how ever many guide lines you want to shoot out from that vanishing point. You could move the guide lines too if needed (while still locked on to the vanishing point). Then once the painting is done, have a option to remove the perspective lines. Also have a option to change the color of the lines and a transparency option.

Lunatique

10-24-2007, 03:43 AM

Not sure if it has been said or if it's even in painter but...

I think their should be a perspective tool.

It's already in Painter. If you're not sure, you probably should've checked the help files? ;)

Improv

10-24-2007, 06:20 AM

It's already in Painter. If you're not sure, you probably should've checked the help files? ;)

Painter X only! :-)

Jinbrown

10-24-2007, 08:22 AM

Hi,

The Perspective Grid was introduced in procreate Painter 7 and it's in each following full Corel Painter version.

To learn about it, read the following:

Painter 7 Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > Basics > Working with Documents > Using the Perspective Grid(Click all of these in the left panel and info on Using the Perspective Grid opens in the right panel.)
Painter 8 Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > BasicsIn the right panel, click the link named "Working with Documents". On the next page, scroll down to the sub section named "Using the Perspective Grid".
Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > The BasicsIn the right panel, click the link named "Working with Rulers, Guides, and Grids". On the next page, scroll down to the sub section named "Using the Perspective Grid".
Painter X Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > The BasicsIn the right panel, click the link named "Working with Composition Tools, Rulers, and Guides". On the next page, scroll down to the sub section named "Using the Perspective Grid".

.

Improv

10-24-2007, 06:42 PM

Hi,
Perpective Grid was introduced in procreate Painter 7 and it's in each following full Corel Painter version.

Guess I was thinking about the new Divine Proportions and new Layout Grid.

Whatever. <shrug>

Hiun

10-30-2007, 08:36 PM

The only thing I wish to see in Painter is live editing. Things that are done so often such as scale, rotate, and so forth. It would be great to see it happen while you do it instead of having to guess. I don't like jumping over to photoshop to do something that simple for accuracy and then jump back to Painter. I also notice that when something is rotated in painter it has a tendency to blur. The same blur even happened a few times when I copied and pasted within the same image. Could just be my Painter, but I doubt it :shrug: I love Painter immensely and I enjoy what it is built for. I also love photoshop greatly especially for what it is built for. When it comes to painting I never hestitate to go straight to Painter, but I really hate thinking I will have to technically edit something, becaus ethen I will have to run to Photoshop (Good thing for the PSD format). But I do believe the editing tools in Painter can DEFINATELY be a lot more friendly.:)

JunkyardSam

11-03-2007, 12:49 AM

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet:

Eyedropper with Area Averaging:
This works just like a default eyedropper, but you have the option to set a number of pixels below your crosshair which painter will average together to determine your color pick.

Example - red bar next to white bar. With area averaging, clicking the hard line where they meet will give you PINK. Then you just drag in the direction you want to make your color pick more red or more white.

This is how Photoshop works. It's the same as painter by default but you can set
"sample size" to 3x3, 5x5, 11x11, etc. for area averaging. It makes picking colors MUCH easier.

This is something almost every digital painter finds useful once they try it!

(Thanks, Jinny, for helping me to find this forum.)

rcraighead

11-06-2007, 08:02 PM

New to the forum.

1. I'd like to be able to move directly from one layer mask to another, without clicking a second time on the thumbnail.

2. I'd like the layer mask to scale with the layer, or clearly state how to do this is the help file if this is possible.

Jinbrown

11-08-2007, 05:08 AM

Hi,

Can't help with your number 1 item as I, too, need to click twice to make a Layer Mask active.

Number 2 works for me just fine. Here's how I do it:

Create a new Layer.
Create a Layer Mask for that new Layer.
Paint on the Layer Mask.
Paint on the Layer.
Make the Layer Mask active.
In the Channels palette, highlight the appropriate Alpha Channel (i.e. Layer 1 Layer Mask).
Click the Load Channel as Selection icon (left icon) and choose (for instance) Layer 1 Layer Mask from the Load From: drop down list. Now the selection is active.
Deselect the selection (Ctrl/Command+D).
Use Canvas > Resize and change the dimensions to double the original Width and Height in pixels, then click the OK button.
Repeat Steps 6 and 7. Now the selection is again displayed but this time appropriately larger than in Step 7.
Use Ctrl/Command+Z to Undo back to the original image size (as in Step 8).
Use Canvas > Resize and change the dimensions to 50% (or half the number of pixels for Width and Height).
Repeat Steps 6 and 7. Now the selection is again displayed but this time appropriately smaller than in Step 7.
In other words, the Layer Mask and Alpha Channel are scaled up or down with the image when we use Canvas > Resize.

I'm using Painter X.1 in WinXP Home SP2.

Jin

rcraighead

11-08-2007, 11:46 AM

Thank you for your response Jenny. 13 steps for what should be a "link" icon in the Layers Palette seems quite bazarre.

rcraighead

11-08-2007, 03:24 PM

1. A simpler way to hide multiple layers. In Photoshop I "Option-click" a layer visibility icon to toggle all other layers off. I see no such option in Painter.
2. Better screen refresh: There are numerous times when Painter does not refresh the screen properly (both in the paint window and palettes). For examples, sometimes the layer icons do not refresh and present inacurate thumbnails. Other times the layer visibility icons do not refresh (especially when dragging across several in succession).

Jinbrown

11-08-2007, 03:54 PM

Thank you for your response Jenny. 13 steps for what should be a "link" icon in the Layers Palette seems quite bazarre.

The 13 steps describe my testing to make sure it would work, resizing larger, then resizing smaller and having the Layer Mask and Alpha Channel resize with the image.

You'd be doing some of those steps anyway if you wanted to resize the image.

It doesn't take 13 steps to resize an image with a Layer Mask. :D

.

rcraighead

11-08-2007, 05:09 PM

Sorry, the steps seem too confusing for this simple-minded illustrator. I'd prefer a "link" icon in the layers palette any day. :)

Jinbrown

11-08-2007, 05:59 PM

Hi,

I think the problem is that I misunderstood what you wanted to do. The steps I used to test were to resize the entire image, to see if the Layer Mask would resize with the Layer and the rest of the image.

Now I see you probably meant what you said... scale the Layer.

Just tested that in Painter X.1 and the Layer Mask did scale when I scaled the Layer.

Try this:

Create a Layer and paint a solid square area in the center of the Layer.
Create a Layer Mask
In the Layers palette, click the Layer Mask to highlight it.
Paint a small solid circle on the Layer Mask over the center of the solid square you painted on the Layer.
In the Layers palette, click the Layer to highlight it.
Use Effects > Orientation > Scale and make the Layer larger. Notice the solid circle painted on the Layer Mask has also been scaled up with the Layer.
If that's still not what you meant, I guess I need another cup of coffee. ;)

Jin

rcraighead

11-08-2007, 06:41 PM

Interesting, the first time I followed the steps above, the mask offset from the layer (moved completely off the square). Doing it again did work. However, "Orientation/Scale" does not give me a preview and does not allow rotation or distortion, which limits its usefulness in my opinion.

I have been using the "Free Transform" option which does not scale the mask.

I am using IX.5, so things may haved changed, but I think Corel needs to take a look at Photoshop's implementation of layer mask editing.

More mask-related wishes:

1. Make mask active when creating the mask (right now I create a mask then have to click the mask icon to make it active. It seems a good assumption that creating a mask means you want to edit it.)
2. Set forground color to black by default when the mask is active (this is usually the value needed when editing a mask and gives the full range of values when working with a pressure sensitive brush.)

Thanks for your help Jinny.

Odonthe1st

11-19-2007, 12:10 AM

Hopefully none of these functions exist already. I read through about half this thread and some of my suggestions have already been mentioned but I'd like to vote for them too.

Smoother Opacity
It seems like anything above 30-40% for most brushes is nearly the same as 100%. Or at least it seems to get really difficult to control, like the pressure ramps up as you push harder.

Merge layers in one step

Custom Brush Icons.
I want to be able to create a folder for my favorite brushes and create a custom palette from them and be able to tell them apart. Ideally it would be great to make your custom palette, make a bunch of 30x30 pixel images and just drag and drop them on your palette, replacing the image but not affecting the link to the brush. Or make it easier in SOME way.

Include the brush tracking you set up when you save a custom brush. If it does this I haven't noticed.

Real time transforming so we can see what we're doing.

Easier color/value tweaks like using 'Hue/saturation" in PS

A real perspective tool
When you draw on paper you define your points and hold one end of a ruler on one and move the other end around your image, drawing all lines back to the vanishing point. On the computer we get a grid we can try to line up our strokes to, like if we couldn't put the ruler on top of the paper but could just light table over top of it and try to draw straight lines freehand. I can't believe neither Adobe or Corel has come up with a way to constrain your stroke to a vanishing point and allow us to draw like we can with a ruler. I envision it something like the image below: You zoom way out of your image and then open the perspective palette. The 1st thing you do it define your horizontal and vertical axis/ horizons (have the lines rotate but snap to vertical or horizontal) . Then you click on one of the perspective point buttons (the more the better, I drew 6) and click somewhere on one of the axis and then back on the button to set it. Set as many as you want then zoom back in. Minimize the perspective palette and it should dock somewhere where all you can see are the buttons for the vanishing points. The buttons can be toggled on and off as you draw. Another way to define points, if you were trying to match the perspective in a photo for instance, would be click the little "2 lines" box (or whatever you want to call it) and then click and drag two non-parallel lines and the program will figure out where they cross and set the point.

On a similar note is a usable method for confining your stroke to an eclipse. You could click and drag like the circular marquee tool but then it goes right to a transform mode. Transform real quick, double click to set it, draw your strokes, delete the path, continue on.... You should also be able to set the degree, size and angle numerically. An automatic saving of the last few would be useful, like the brush tracker.

Why is the distance between the fibers on a brush called "feature"? How about "fiber spacing"? This is a very useful function, and shouldn't be hidden in the manual, it should be obvious from within the program.

Custom Brush Icons.
I want to be able to create a folder for my favorite brushes and create a custom palette from them and be able to tell them apart. Ideally it would be great to make your custom palette, make a bunch of 30x30 pixel images and just drag and drop them on your palette, replacing the image but not affecting the link to the brush. Or make it easier in SOME way.

I believe this is doable. I think I recall some sort of tutorial on this in a "Painter 5 FX" or "magic" book.. The cd included custom brush icons too.
Truth is ,it's quite difficult to add custom icons to subcategory brushes. Only the main category icon gets to be displayed on a custom brush palettte. Like bulge, pinch, distorto, will all have the same icon if dragged into a palette, although I think one can change that.
Any one with suggestions on that will refresh our memory?

genocell

11-19-2007, 12:41 PM

I believe this is doable. I think I recall some sort of tutorial on this in a "Painter 5 FX" or "magic" book.. The cd included custom brush icons too.
Truth is ,it's quite difficult to add custom icons to subcategory brushes. Only the main category icon gets to be displayed on a custom brush palettte. Like bulge, pinch, distorto, will all have the same icon if dragged into a palette, although I think one can change that.
Any one with suggestions on that will refresh our memory?

About the custom brush palette, you can't change the default brush icon that you get when you drag it onto the palette. What you see is what you get. You can hover on it but with a Wacom it's not practical. You can only change the icon on the brush selector bar.

rcraighead

11-19-2007, 02:19 PM

A simple alternative to custom brush icons would be "list view" so we could select the brush based on its unique name.

Odonthe1st

11-19-2007, 06:04 PM

I found this page http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.gell/pages/custom_palette_icons_fix.html

and may give it a try but I was hoping for something a little less involved. I'm just hoping it will be added to the program in the future. Even an overlay where we can type in 1, 2,3,etc...over the brush icon would be good.

No input from anyone on the perspective or eclipse tool? I was hoping someone would mention a work around for one of those functions. 12 steps to get a custom brush icon is kinda tough for me (especially since I seem to radiate a field that makes computers act funny, i.e.-I screw things up most of the time) but to easily be able to constrain to a perspective point or an eclipse I'd jump through all kinds of hoops.

Don

genocell

11-19-2007, 08:32 PM

Sorry double post.

genocell

11-19-2007, 08:36 PM

..........

slm

01-09-2008, 02:02 PM

-would be nice to elarge the mixer pallete size to not have scroll it around all the time.
- give the mutiple color picker a brush ghost to we know what colors we are actualy picking.
- make multiple color picker a alternative picker tool to get colors from the canvas, so be able to use any canvas as a mixer.
- be able to apply one type of paper texture as a mode to each layer. it would be easier then swich the paper type.
- when chosing canvas color will able to chosen the painter color wheel or default (windows) color wheel.
- be able to swich the default color triangle to a square like this:
and be able to increse it's size. it's tiny!

* I don't know if it's possible when coping the canvas change the copy canvas color to no color or other color. Not by selecting the canvas color and delete it.

Ion66

01-10-2008, 06:03 PM

Im pretty new to digital art, but have been a professional painter/sculptor for about 20 years. My main wish's have to do with the defaults. For instance, I was doing some messing around with the cloning brushes. I'd love the brushes to default to the direction of the stroke on the tablet. The impressionist brush only made diagonal strokes. Im sure I can switch it, as soon as I hunt down a menu for it (and hopefully the function is obviously named) but it felt wrong to not be applying strokes in the direction I moved the brush. Another few cloning brushes (working on the tracing paper above a photo Id taken) only painted in roses...I mean WTF?...Im sure thats handy for something but please...Im not talking about the image hose here, but other brushes. If I pick up an oil brush or whatever, and use it..I expect an oil effect..not plants. There seems to be a number of things that default to some funky function and make you work to do what is normal or intuitive. Coming from a painting background Id like the transition to working in digital media to be a bit more intuitive and logical.

Jinbrown

01-11-2008, 01:29 PM

- when chosing canvas color will able to chosen the painter color wheel or default (windows) color wheel.

Double-click the Main color square on either the Colors palette or Color Info palette and the Windows Colors dialog box opens. Choose the color, close the dialog box, and use Canvas menu > Set Paper Color. Then do one or more of the following:

Select the entire Canvas and hit the Backspace key to replace the original Canvas color with the new color.
Make a smaller selection and hit the Backspace key to reveal the new Paper color.
Paint with any of the the Eraser's variants that use Subcategory: Soft Paper Color.
Use the Eraser tool.

Jinny

.

Ion66

02-23-2008, 04:05 PM

Ok..Ive since figured out that Id somehow removed the cloned source with that particular brush that painted in "chicks and hens" though as I recall, other brushes were still cloning hte source and working..I dunno, but I now know how to fix it.

Here's my wish of sorts. I have PS6 essentials and its got a new interface with guided, quick and full edits. Id love to have a program like PainterX have "steps". That is to say, basic, intermediate and full create/edit ability. In basic mode, youd get some brushes, canvases/papers and palletes. In intermediate you'd have easy acsess to more functions, but still very clear, intuitive and straightforward, and full would be as it is now.

I say this because Im an artist of over 20 years for a living who is new to Painter, having come from more simple programs and mostly traditional media. Id love for someone like my dad to use this program, becasue of what if can do, but I know that he wouldnt have the time or patience or computer ability to learn all the backdoor methods and shortcuts that are needed to get the program doing the work he does traditionally. Id also have an 11 year old neice who really enjoys art, but again..its too complex a program. The variety of paints and /pens brushes this program has would be faboulous to expose people to in a more intuitive and straightforward way. I love that you can do so much with this program, but Ive hit walls..had to buy books..watch tutorials and such to pick things up. Ive made some great stuff too..and Id love to be able to get some people up and running with the "essential" elements of this software.

My neice with a Wacom bamboo and a simple, straightforward interface would be a great creative combo, and if she could grow into the program, you'd have a customer for life. My dad too for that matter.

kweechy

03-04-2008, 10:37 PM

The mixer is a really great feature, I think it's pretty brilliant actually, but I'd like more functionality in it. Ability to paste selections into it perhaps would be nice as I often use reference material to sample color from.

As many others have griped about, the color selection wheel is totally subpar in Painter... I have no idea why they went with the triangle rather than the square, picking anything in the top or bottom V range is nigh impossible... and then they don't let you manually key in values that I've seen either. At least it has the same function as Photoshop where if you drag the eyedropped off your screen, it'll pickup any colors from other programs. Sadly I just keep Photoshop on one screen to help with color choosing and then just sample from there with Corel.

Jinbrown

03-08-2008, 12:19 AM

The mixer is a really great feature, I think it's pretty brilliant actually, but I'd like more functionality in it. Ability to paste selections into it perhaps would be nice as I often use reference material to sample color from.

As many others have griped about, the color selection wheel is totally subpar in Painter... I have no idea why they went with the triangle rather than the square, picking anything in the top or bottom V range is nigh impossible... and then they don't let you manually key in values that I've seen either.

We can type color values, in either RGB or HSV in the Color Info palette. The default display is RGB. To switch from RGB to HSV, go to the Color Info palette menu and choose Display as HSV.

At least it has the same function as Photoshop where if you drag the eyedropped off your screen, it'll pickup any colors from other programs.

I wish it did do that, but using Painter X.1 in WinXP Home SP2, I'm not able to use the Dropper tool to pick colors outside of the Painter X.1 program window.

Maybe you can explain in more detail how you're able to do it. Thanks in advance.

Sadly I just keep Photoshop on one screen to help with color choosing and then just sample from there with Corel.

#

kweechy

03-08-2008, 09:51 AM

Hmm that's odd... as I was typing that message I thought to myself "I wonder if Corel can sample outside the program by dragging the eyedropper?" and I tested it and was picking up the red --> black gradient on this site's background, watching the color in the Corel colors pallete slowly turn from red to black as I ran my stylus across the page... yet now I can't reproduce it.

Jin, I don't see where I can manually key in values. I click on the little white HSV box with the numerical color info and all clicking seems to do is toggle between RGB values and HSV. Or do you mean keying them in manually in the expanded, double-click, classic Windows color choosing window?

Jinbrown

03-10-2008, 07:56 AM

Hi kweechy,

From my previous post:

We can type color values, in either RGB or HSV in the Color Info palette. The default display is RGB. To switch from RGB to HSV, go to the Color Info palette menu and choose Display as HSV.

Not the Colors palette, but the Color Info palette.

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genocell

03-11-2008, 02:23 AM

The mixer is a really great feature, I think it's pretty brilliant actually, but I'd like more functionality in it. Ability to paste selections into it perhaps would be nice as I often use reference material to sample color from.

As many others have griped about, the color selection wheel is totally subpar in Painter... I have no idea why they went with the triangle rather than the square, picking anything in the top or bottom V range is nigh impossible... and then they don't let you manually key in values that I've seen either. At least it has the same function as Photoshop where if you drag the eyedropped off your screen, it'll pickup any colors from other programs. Sadly I just keep Photoshop on one screen to help with color choosing and then just sample from there with Corel.

I think the color triangle is BRILLIANT feature. The best color picking method in my opinion. I used to think it wasn't when I was starting out too, but you'll appreciate it soon...

I think the MAIN problem with the color triangle is not the design, but the size of it. It's too small. And the bigger your monitor gets/the higher resolution you use, the smaller it becomes. I have to downgrade to 1024 x 768 every time I run painter if not the color triangle would be smaller than the size of a postage stamp.

Painter seems to have shrunk the triangle from previous versions of Painter, below is a comparison between a Painter 7 on the right (still running one) and a Painter IX.5 (same size as Painter X) on the left. :curious:

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/601/paintertriangleen9.jpg

If anything it should be getting BIGGER with each subsequent versions! :D

I would really really LOVE if it has a much much bigger color triangle, seeing that today's monitor's are getting bigger, and Painter's UIs are getting smaller and smaller. This is a BIG problem as big monitors are very common these days.

Loolarge

03-11-2008, 03:38 AM

Assigning brushes to hotkeys or key for "previous brush".

workbench

03-11-2008, 05:15 PM

The color wheel on SAI is the best one in my opinion, I didn't know Corel had reduced the size on current versions considering people have been asking to enlarge the wheel for ages now.

catnip

03-11-2008, 10:47 PM

There should be an easier way to create custom brush libraries from within Painter. I miss the old Brush Mover. (I know they still have the paper mover, etc.).

The way it's done now is too complicated. On Windows, you have to create a new brush category within an existing library. Then you have to exit Painter, find the new brush category in your Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Corel\Painter\Brushes\(brush library) folder, which is hidden by default.

Then you have to make a whole new folder, and be sure to copy and paste the XML, nib, stk, jpg files in the Painter Brushes folder in the right location. Oddly enough, the jpg icon file has to be outside of your brush category folder. If you don't get it just right, Painter crashes, or you get a blank brush library, or nothing changes.

Really, it's too hard. We're artists, darnit! :scream:

kweechy

04-02-2008, 07:30 AM

I'm not sure I see how the Triangle is better than a Square, Genocell. The square is like a graph where the axes are value and saturation... just as you'd have a very innaccurate graph if you tried to plot something like a supply and demand economic graph on a triangle, you end up with a very innaccurate colour pallette when it's plotted on a triangle as well.

The issue is that as you get closer to 0% and 100% values, it becomes increasingly impossible to pick the saturation value that you want... to the point where at 99% and 1% values, 1 pixel makes the difference between 0% saturation and 100%.

Also thanks Jinny, I found the colour info pallette. Helps out a lot, though I find myself drifting towards Photoshop more and more these days for everything other than drawing the line art in Corel. I love the pencils in Corel and something so simple as allowing you to freely rotate the canvas is such a wonderful feature as well as the infinite panning you can do in Corel so that you never get trapped against the edge of a zoomed image like you do in PS.

John Keates

04-02-2008, 11:51 AM

The issue is that as you get closer to 0% and 100% values, it becomes increasingly impossible to pick the saturation value that you want... to the point where at 99% and 1% values, 1 pixel makes the difference between 0% saturation and 100%.

This is my complaint about the triangle pallete also. The more different colour picking methods, the better. Particularly when colour picking is such an important aspect of painting.

workbench

04-03-2008, 03:09 AM

A square is better because you have a larger area than a triangle.

You should use a color swatch list anyway, preferable a CMYK safe, like in traditional painting you have a limited amount of color tubes, plus with mixing and blending engine you're already doing half the work.

Being a triangle or a square is a non issue, the size is the real issue because monitors are getting larger and cheaper with the years but the sliders and color wheels have stayed the same, which means tiny on larger monitors.

Miguimau

04-08-2008, 09:58 AM

I think the color triangle is BRILLIANT feature. The best color picking method in my opinion. I used to think it wasn't when I was starting out too, but you'll appreciate it soon...

I think the MAIN problem with the color triangle is not the design, but the size of it. It's too small. And the bigger your monitor gets/the higher resolution you use, the smaller it becomes. I have to downgrade to 1024 x 768 every time I run painter if not the color triangle would be smaller than the size of a postage stamp.

Painter seems to have shrunk the triangle from previous versions of Painter, below is a comparison between a Painter 7 on the right (still running one) and a Painter IX.5 (same size as Painter X) on the left. :curious:

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/601/paintertriangleen9.jpg

If anything it should be getting BIGGER with each subsequent versions! :D

I would really really LOVE if it has a much much bigger color triangle, seeing that today's monitor's are getting bigger, and Painter's UIs are getting smaller and smaller. This is a BIG problem as big monitors are very common these days.

Absolutely! I miss Painter 7 color wheeland I have noticed this smaller one in Painter 8 and so; in fact I understand that Corel had their reasons to adopt a Photoshop approach to the interface but I miss Painter 7 layout as well. Am I alone in this?

I have lots of wishes for Painter XI but a developing of Painter´s animation tools would be great.

By the way, hi everyone. I´m a long time Painter list subscriber and given the fact that many of our core members (hi Jinny) appear to be actively here , I will try to participate. :)

womanonfire

04-08-2008, 11:21 PM

you are not alone. i miss the old UI too!
I thought Painter 6 was awesome. I liked having the library palettes open all the time showing their contents. I liked the UI customizations you could do, like making a pattern into the palette background image. =)
I don't think the "Photoshop-ification" of Painter was such a good idea. It still feels like a bit of an unfinished copycat. With so many great features it'd be nice if Painter could look a bit more ...well, pretty... or at least design around its feature set, and not just try to look like PS.

- i'd love it if the custom palettes were more useful. right now they just show the brush category icon, somehow they should show more info about which tool is which.

Jinbrown

04-09-2008, 01:44 AM

Hi Miguel!

It's good to see you. The poor, pitiful Painter list is virtually dead these days, sad to say.

In addition to this forum and the Conceptart.org Painter Forum (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23), you might also want to join The PainterFactory, Corel's new Painter community forums site.

You can post problems and bug reports (and any other Corel Painter technical problems) at The PainterFactory (http://painterfactory.com/), in the Painter Discussions area (click the tab at the top of the page) > Corel Painter Product Discussion forum category > Got a Question? forum.

The Got a Question? forum is the best place to discuss technical questions and concerns with Corel Painter users and the Corel Painter Development Team.

If you want to make suggestions for enhancements, bug fixes, etc. to be included in the next patch/Update or the next Painter version, you can post them in the same forum category, in the Suggestion Box forum.

There are loads of other things to see and read, in other forums, in the Galleries, and in the Blogs, including some nice tutorials in Scott McKissick's, John Derry's, and David Gell's Blogs.

I look forward to seeing you there, participating with a very friendly and talented group of Painter artists and, when they're available, with people from the Corel Painter development team.